Musings as I ride my bike around Amsterdam

I rode my rental bike to work the last two days. Last night I was really challenged when we left the office at 9:30pm and we still had a 30 minute ride back to the apartment, assuming we didn’t get lost like we did in the morning. One of the good things about riding the tram for the last week is we familiarized ourselves with the landmarks and it was actually simple to figure out where we made the one wrong turn. Naturally, we had started down the right street and then thought it was the wrong one and turned around and proceeded in the wrong direction. We made it back home in 25 minutes flat at a very leisurely pace, which was awesome because that is half the time it takes to go by foot > tram > foot. It’s only 4 miles from the apartment to the office, and if I didn’t have the bike and I was really feeling frisky I think I’d almost prefer a brisk walk home than a 50 minute / 4 mile tram ride with lots of waiting and walking in-between. Anyway, the cycling around town is really awesome. I see no reason why every major urban area in the US can’t have this same type of system. In Holland, bicycles come first. If a motorist hits a cyclist, even if the cyclist was a total knucklehead, it’s the driver’s fault. As a result, cars are always on the lookout for bikes. That doesn’t exactly happen in the US. Don’t even get me started on Atlanta. It must be the most “unfriendly” cycling city in the US.

 

Everyone traveling to Amsterdam should feel obliged to rent a bike. It’s really the best way to see the city. The bikes are easy to maneuver and the seats are big and wide, so your bottom doesn’t hurt too badly like it would on a road bike. As I have ridden around town over the last couple of days, I feel like I have really submersed myself into the culture and really feel like a true Dutchman, if only for a few fleeting minutes when I’m not disrupting the flow of traffic or nearly running over pedestrians. In my opinion, cycling is one of the reasons Dutch women have nice legs. So ladies, if that isn’t reason enough to hustle around town on a bike, even for short distances, then I don’t know what is!

 

My favorite bike here is the traditional Gazelle, which you probably know without even knowing you know it. I also think the concoctions they have created for transporting children are really cool. They have bikes with what looks like a wheelbarrow on the front. You stuff the kids in the wheelbarrow and off you go. You’ll also see some young mommies riding with children that look no older than Rohan in a seat right in front of them, essentially strapped to the handlebars. Tina, let’s get one!

 

Last night we found a fantastic tapas place on Westersstraat, which is in the Jordaan district right near our apartment. It was called Paso Doble. We had a nice Spanish waitress and my colleague Eduardo felt happy that he could finally speak Spanish with somebody. We ordered way too much food, probably had one drink too many, and made our way back to the apartment around midnight. All in a days work!

 

Today I was back up at 6:40am for a quick 30 minute jog and then headed back to work. Today we have a hard stop at 7pm, thank goodness…because the last three days of the workweek are going to be hell.