On your bike!

Pics of the week - The School run and the office cycle park.


Before really getting to know my way around town on the bicycle, we were already heading off into the countryside, windmills and all. On a wet Saturday morning a group of us had decided to meet up at the famous Olympic Torch to cycle down the Amstel to the pretty village of Ouderkerk. Why famous? Apparently, the idea of the Olympic torch or Olympic Flame was first inaugurated at the 1928 Olympic Games here in Amsterdam. Remember that, it’s good for a Pub Night Trivia Quiz!

The rest of the team were already there when we arrived at the stadium, as we peddled faster across the impressive forecourt, waving and making a bit of an entrance only to turn into a laughing stock. After applying the brakes K went clean over the handlebars of his bike landing at the feet of the rest of the group who thought he was performing some sort of stunt. I almost did the same. It must be something to do with the bikes being left out in the elements chained to the railings at the front of the house. To date, they have been southern softie bikes living in a cycle shed at the back of our dry garage in the UK. I’ve noticed the rust spots already in several places so unless they’re stolen during our little sojourn here they might not stand the test of time!! Better buy some WD40!! Since the ride, my front brakes have seized up completely.

Yesterday I made another trip to Chinatown – not with the idea of the Red Light Area in mind, we are having our first dinner party on Saturday and thought I had better go and buy some herbs, spices and sesame oil. I wish I was not so hopeless at directions, I think someone should invent a GPS for cyclists. Standing what I thought was way back from the tramlines, trying to read my map (upside down of course to give true directions) I was tapped on the shoulder by someone who, with a flick of the head indicated that there was something behind me, I turned to find a tram, just waiting patiently for me to get out of the way. How embarrassing, astride my bicycle stopping all the traffic, map in hand. I thought I was well out of the way of the tramlines, but the swing of the front of the tram needs a lot more space than I thought as it rounds a bend. Lesson learned.


Talking of maps. On Sunday, the weather changed it was a glorious day so good for walking around town. We stopped at the main Tourist Office at Central Station to collect some literature, maybe cycling routes or ideas about good walks. The sort of stuff that you get in any Tourist Office. We know the Dutch have a reputation about being mean, a recent survey here in Holland took it to a new level ie revealing that 20% of campers interviewed (camping being the preferred cheap international holiday for many Nederlanders) admitted taking their own potatoes with them travelling to the South of France or other European destinations, but I have never seen a tourist office anywhere in the world, where you can’t get a map of the city, even if it’s a sheet torn off a pad of maps! There was absolutely no information in English even to buy. The only information was a cycling pack with individual maps selling at 17€ for the pack and written in Dutch? Well that’s not very useful for tourists I said to the unhelpful girl at the desk. She responded that the trails were easy to follow, but when I replied that it wasn’t very useful not knowing why you had arrived at a certain point or what you were looking at. She just shrugged! I got a similar response trying to get tube (metro) maps and bus routes – we finally found some information online.

After that little moan, I have to say there is a really generous offer on train travel. If you buy an annual Railcard you get 40% off most journeys within The Netherlands and you can take 4 people along with you and they get the same reduction. Now that IS a good deal. Similarly, the Museum pass gives you entrance to most museums and other places of interest all over The Netherlands either free after purchasing the pass or at a very reduced rate, all this for less than 40€pp. pa. We’ve ordered two online.

Time to go to market with my shopping trolley – now I wouldn’t be seen dead with such a thing back home, I thought those sorts of things were reserved for REAL old ladies in headscarves, but after overshopping in the supermarket or market on more than one occasion (bearing in mind I no longer have a car) and carrying heavy bags down the street putting out my back and shoulders, I’ve decided it’s the bike with saddle bags or the shopping trolley with wheels, incidentally it said on the packaging the trolley was designed to mount the stairs but I don’t know how that works as the wheels work like any others being pulled up a staircase…..bumpety bump!!