First Things First
Within days of settling into our new apartment, Kristy and I got the IKEA itch. No, not the one caused by eating too many Swedish meatballs with Lingonberry sauce, but the strong urge to finish furnishing our place so we can get on with our lives. Those of you who are not first-born and/or obsessive compulsive probably don’t know what I’m talking about.
Last year I had hoped to rent a van from Miles, which can be found all over Berlin. Unfortunately, without a German driver’s license, I was unable to set up an account. So we opted to ride the bus to IKEA and took a taxi back home. Not bad, but this year we thought we could do better.
Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national rail operator, runs a countrywide bike sharing program named Call-a-Bike that has been around since 2000. Rates are really cheap: 4 Euros/month for unlimited 30-min rides and 1 Euro per additional half-hour up to a daily maximum of 9 Euros. You can return the bikes to a station for free or pay a small fee to lock it up within the service area.
I have been using it to get to work for the past year because I pay nothing beyond the monthly membership fee for my 20-min commute. Also, I find it really convenient to be able to take a different mode of transportation home should the weather change or I have post-work plans somewhere farther away. For the 20-min ride to IKEA, this was definitely the way to go.
If there’s one downside to Call-a-Bike, it’s the fact that it doesn’t cover all of Berlin. If your destination is outside the service area, you can either pause your rental, continuing to pay the half-hourly rate, or return the bike but pay a 10 Euro penalty. Lucky for us, IKEA is only slightly outside the boundary, and we were able to lock up our bikes at a Call-a-Bike hub at the Suedkreuz railway station. From there, an appropriately-decorated underpass leads directly to the holy grail.
Clearly, we were not the only ones biking, since the plaza in front of IKEA is outfitted with numerous bicycle racks, plenty of which were occupied. It also contains the color red, which I didn’t know was allowed on IKEA property. If I had known, I would have worn an Albanian flag.
On our way inside, we also noticed that IKEA makes cargo bikes available for those who bought a little more than they can transport on a regular bike. Where are we, Holland?!
I won’t bore you with the details of our purchase, but suffice it to say that we did not have to buy any furniture. It was an accessorizing trip. You know, the kind where you get a whole bunch of little things for under 100 kronor?
With our backpacks stuffed and an IKEA bag in tow, we headed back to Suedkreuz to pick up our bikes and head back to the ranch. All-in-all, not a bad way to spend an afternoon. And a lot less stressful (and a whole lot more possible) than cycling to the Emeryville IKEA from our home in San Francisco.
