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Roller-Hitching revisted (a new roll-playing game?)

© Bernd Wechner

Last November I ran a little test, skating from Geneva to Lausanne (60km) in a day with a pack on, and walking, skating and thumbing back the next day. I was curious to see if roller-skates (and I'll break with all elitist tradition here, and call my in-line skates, roller-skates) were a worthwhile addition to one's luggage when travelling.

The whole idea is simple, that skates are portable, much more portable than a bicycle. Which means, for longer stretches you can still hitch rides, and skate the shorter and/or more enjoyable stretched, and also gain wonderful urban mobility when you arrive somewhere. Now I have known people to do all of this with a bicycle. I've even hitched with a bicycle, when I lost 5 spokes at once on a tour up the eastern seaboard of Australia and really had no other way of getting into the next town ... but on the whole, a bicycle really cuts down the number and kind of rides you might hope for. Well, it's all a matter of pros and cons really.

Anyhow, I decided back in November that, well, it's possible, but not as wild as I might have hoped. The whole problem being that luggage really hampers your skating style, turning and braking become much less interesting affairs with a 15kg bag on your back. Not only that, the quality of the road was a most discouraging factor. Many roads are simple so rough as to make your whole body vibrate when skated upon, and/or so narrow as to provide a more intimate relationship with the passing traffic than desired.

But as it happens, leaving Geneva, and the working life behind me, I packed some boxes and sent them home to Australia, and my bag for the hitch to Berlin, where I'd catch up with my long lost girlfriend. I saw little reason in sending my rather old and worn skates back to Australia, where I might see them again in a year or two, so I was looking around for someone with a size 45 shoe and an interest in taking up skating ...

Then I discussed the coming trip with my girl in Berlin, and the order came; down from above; that I was to bring those skates! She had every intention of skating with me in Berlin. Among other things in Berlin they have a fortnightly summer event, called Bladenight, in which as many as 50,000 skaters cruise about 15km in a circuit through central Berlin, along roads closed by the police, to demonstrate for equal rights for skaters! That was an event to catch. Yes, equal rights for skaters! In Germany, skates are considered toys and not permitted on roads legally (as if that stopped anyone) and Bladenight is a kind of march, well roll, in a campaign to gain the same traffic rights for skaters that cyclists enjoy today.

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