Riding Along On My Pushbike, Honey ...

We knew Amsterdam was flat.  We knew people rode bicycles.  But the sheer number is what has amazed us.

I mentioned on the canal bus we saw what, at first glance, appeared a multi-level car park.  But it is for two wheeled vehicles.  And the commentary informed us it was woefully too small.  Room for about 2000 and over 9000 bikes left in the area each day.

This city has planned to be bike friendly.  (No helmet laws help to jump on and go.  It may be impossible to implement anyway.  Can you imagine having to physically find space to store your helmet?  Or carry it into shops and cafes?  Plus police would have to pedal faster than you to 'ride you down' and issue the fine!)

We get the feeling that, unlike Melbourne where Cars are King and everybody else, just watch out - here Bikes Rule!  The many bike lanes create through traffic-ways for them.  Pedestrians know to keep out of their way, so bike traffic can flow.   Cars, trams and delivery trucks are about, but there are still many side and minor streets, it seems, where bikes can zip about, clattering over bridges, rattling over paving stones, zooming along about their business.

Bike racks are in abundance.  On corners of streets, across some canal bridges, along the edges of roadways and canals.  Bikes lean against fences.  Bikes are propped up against windows, along the sides of buildings.  Bikes are ... Everywhere.  (So frustrating not to be able to add photos here at this hotel to show you!).

I saw three stone steps lead DOWN from the pavement to a front door.  A "U" shape isteel bar, with 2 centimetre sides, was set a bit off centre of the steps.  Strange, I thought, until I realised the owner's bike could be wheeled up and down, to save having to carry it.

Various bikes with small carts as part of the contraption are parked outside frnt doors in side streets, which obviously lead to homes, not businesses.  We have seen little children sit or kneel in these as a parent ferries them about.  We saw two dads, each with such bike/carts, stop on a bridge to chat.  The kids clamoured out, chased each other about, then hopped back in when it was time to leave.

We are amused by young adults using their mobile phones as they pedal along.  One woman casually put on her jacket, riding past us.

No helmet laws obviously.  Which makes it so much easier to jump on your bike and pedal off.  We saw police on bikes last night, keeping an eye on the Friday night revellers.

Bikes don't seem to have gears.  Maybe any flash bikes may be stolen, so are stored inside homes.  But even the ones we see being ridden tend to be fairly plain ... and rather rattle a lot.  Lack of guttering and curb edges creates a flatter area across the width of available road space, but bike lanes tend to be of a different paver.  But we keep a close watch out, as Bikes Rule!  We don't want to be knocked down by one as it flashes by.