My Train Station Adventure
This morning I went on an adventure.
I had not been planning to but as I waited so very patiently for my morning train a strange and curious desire for exploration overtook my legs and propelled them, one in front of the other, forwards. At first I did not think anything odd of this for it is my habit to wonder about, back and forth, up and down, around and around as I wait for any number of things. But this morning the realization dawned upon me that they seemed to be taking me in a single determined direction; towards the end of the platform.
Do not be alarmed dear reader. This was not a suicide attempt on the part of my legs due to wiriness of country wonders and tiredness of long walks on the beach. Nor am I writing this to you from beyond the grave. My legs very much like life and walking, as do I. No, they were not taking me to the ‘edge’ of the platform; they were taking me to the ‘end’ of the platform, the far end where no one goes.
Have you ever wondered why station platforms are so very long and yet trains are so very short? No one ever does but I was starting to. As I got closer and closer to the end of the platform my mind started to question what amazing and wondrous things I would find there. Would it be the home of a monster? An eight legged tentacle thing? Or a troll perhaps that ate railway line bolts?
I stopped and looked back for a moment to see how far I had come. The people, the other commuters, seemed so far away back where I had started. I wondered if they could even see the end of the platform, if they could even see me? For a moment I wondered if I should turn back, if such adventure was foolhardy. But the desire to discover what was at the platforms end was growing stronger and stronger within me.
Slowly, with each step the end of the platform drew closer and closer, until… suddenly… I was there. My toes were at the very edge of the platform world, softly touching the void. I looked out at the realm beyond the platform and beheld…
No matter how amazing the wonders contained within the view at the end of my adventure are there is one thing, one detail which is the most amazing of all. Do you see it? It’s the most fascinating thing. Do you see it yet? Look closer. There. By the stairs. A fiets goot (a bicycle ramp)… How Dutch can you get?
What on earth is that doing there if you’re not supposed to go there anyway? They are always everywhere other than where I need them to be. I want my husband to build one on the side of our stairs to our storage room in the basement. Carrying my bike out of there is such a task!
See? As I said in my post, it’s virtually impossible to take a photo here without a bike being present in one sense or another!
I used to wander to the end of the platforms of the subways in New York when the waiting got tedious.
Ahhn ? Incredible !
How steep was the end of the platform since it kind of looks like a drop of 10 or 20 cms. Totally not worth it to install a fietsgoot.
Breigh – That was the same thing I was wondering. Who in their right mind is going to ride there bike along there. Maybe people who work there but even then the ground is to uneven to ride a bike.
Alison – You are totally right. I don’t know if I have any photos from the last nine years that dose not have a bike or something to do with bikes in the frame.
Manictastic – I’d say it was about a meter.
It’s called harm minimisation.
We don’t want you to do it, but if you do anyway, here’s a fiets goot to ensure you don’t hurt yourself hauling your bike down into the forbidden zone.
Also very Dutch.
Ha! It does make you wonder…
I just threw my head back, laughing. A bicycle ramp, what the hell?