I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it’s pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that’d be rather time consuming.

Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can’t ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.

edit: the high number of replies mentioning “swimming” made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.

  • Naja Kaouthia@lemmy.world
    8·
    1 year ago

    Was a bit of a learning curve for me, having moved from subtropical Florida to Colorado the land of eternal winter. I bought a Subaru.

    • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      I had an Uber driver in Florida last time I was there (business) and when he found out I was from Canada he told me he went to Boulder in the winter for a vacation and thought it would be cool to rent a car and drive up a mountain. Yeah, he was pretty freaked out by that driving experience. :)

      Good call on the Subaru. My wife had a couple and they were great in the snow. First car we ever had with heated seats, too!

      • Naja Kaouthia@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        When I first moved here I thought to myself,”Damn there are a lot of Subarus here.”. The reason became abundantly clear during my first winter here lol.

      • PopShark@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        I used to (sometimes skipping class) drive in the mountains almost every day when I was living in Boulder attending CU. I loved it and miss it dearly.

        • grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 year ago

          I’ve never been there but I lived in Banff, Alberta for a while when I was 19 (which was a while ago). I was cooking at a hotel there and living in residence. Sometimes I thought I’d stay there forever but I love the ocean, too. Jokes on me, I live in a city hours from the mountains and a day from the ocean now. :)

          Something about a mountain town after a snow storm… Pretty cool.

          Maybe I’m old but I love John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High. Takes me back.