My new bike, part two

I just picked up my new bike from the bike shop and it's all ready to go! I had to get the appropriate lights mounted (in accordance with Swiss law), and I also had them install mud flaps (for lack of a better term) and a rack for the back. A few days ago, I stopped at the post office to buy my "velovignette" and now I'm all set to go for a ride! I'm not still not sure I understand the purpose of the velovignette. It's basically a little registration sticker that you attach to your bike that you can show the police in case they stop to ask if you have registered your bike. But there's also a part that you're supposed to fill out with information about the bike (make, model, color, etc) for insurance purposes. It doesn't mean it's insured, it just means in case it gets stolen, and in case you forgot what it looks like, then you can look at the description you've written when you report the theft to the police. You don't actually turn it in to anyone as a registration, but instead you just keep it at home for future reference. I guess the funniest thing to me about the velovignette (other than the name-- velo is bike in French and Fahrrad is bike in German so why isn't it a Fahrrad vignette) is that you buy it at the post office. What do they have to do with anything?

One more thing about biking. We live atop the hill from hell. Seriously. It is huge. Walking up this hill from downtown is one thing, but biking up it... I can't even imagine. Day after day we see all sorts of people biking up it-- old ladies, women in skirts and heels, men in suits coming home from work-- and it seems that all of them do it with relative ease. On my way home from the shop today I had my first encounter with the hill on a bike. I made it part of the way up, but am not ashamed to admit that I walked the bike the rest of the way. I am making it a goal to bike up the hill "with ease" at some point before moving out of Basel. That will be an exciting day.