Walking isn’t usually my thing. Compared to riding my bike, it feels slow. But I’m injured and I’m living too close to the university to even consider riding my bike.
That’s been true on sabbaticals. I walked to work in Canberra, Australia. Under 3 km doesn’t seem worth bike shorts and special shoes and that’s the bike I had with me. Ditto Dunedin and the University of Otago. I lived just a few kilometres from campus halfway up an extremely steep hill. It would have been a fast coast to campus in the morning and walking my bike up the hill in the afternoon.
But this is my first time regularly walking to work in Canada. I don’t have a car here in Guelph so that’s not even an option.
I could do without the ice and sometimes the temperatures have been a bit much. But as all the smiling selfies attest, mostly I’m enjoying it. Look there are horses on my route to work!
My son’s preschool is 1.06 miles from my “office”. So, I drop him off and hike it across campus. I purposefully did not buy a parking permit so that I am not easily tempted to drive to work on rainy or cold days. Although, I have taken the occasional ride from someone else. I enjoy seeing who is up and roaming the courtyards at 830am….seeing former students leaving their other classes…..and doing the dance of “don’t attack me” with the Canadian Geese. Thumbs up to walking to work….even in the cold!