Amsterdam to the Hague

When I first opened my eyes on the day that I was finally going to make the journey to meet up with John and the boys I was so excited I could barely stand it. Let me tell you, that excitement was nothing compared to what I felt when I rounded the corner at the Amsterdam airport and saw John's smiling face there to greet me. Its a moment I wont forget for a few reasons. I was truly relieved to know that he was safe and sound after so long being on the road. Also, he had the look of someone who was in on a secret and I knew that I was about to understand just where that smile came from. The smile comes from the knowledge that bike tours are pretty much the coolest thing ever.

So after spending a few fantastic days of enjoying a taste of what Amsterdam has to offer including the Van Gogh museum, parks, pancakes embedded with bacon, coffee shops, kebabs, night life, and the cutest collection of bicycling Dutch people you can imagine, John and I (Katie Svec) packed up our bikes and got on the road.

On our first day, we made our way through the outskirts of Amsterdam, through suburbs, industrial parks, the airport, wide open fields and communities filled with modest little houses all surrounded by systems of canals. There were plenty of curious cows and entire herds of sheep who would greet us with their "baaa's" as we pedaled by laughing and laughing.

Everything in the Netherlands seems to be very clean and very well-kept. They have an obvious pride in home ownership and it really shows. The other major thing that I noticed was the 'appropriateness of scale' of everything around us. To put it concisely, Hummers and McMansions have not yet hit the Netherlands scene. Every aspect of the built environment feels efficient and thoughtfully designed, with an obvious sensitivity to nature and neighbors. They take up just as much space as a reasonable person actually requires and no more. Plus their gardens are fantastic. Minimalist and restrained, which happens to be right up my alley.

Our entire ride from Amsterdam to the French border was biked via dedicated bicycle paths. The paths we rode on are all smooth, well maintained and equally as extensive and interconnected as routes provided for cars. This is to say that quite literally, no matter where you want to go, infrastructure is in place which makes biking a viable option for travel. The bike paths and lanes are supplemented by bike traffic lights, bike parking garages, and ferrys which fill in the gaps when water comes into play.

Another wonderful thing that we noticed in the Netherlands was their system of community gardens. They have set aside parcels of land, maybe a few acres each, that have been divided up, about 12 feet by 12 feet or so, and it seems that people in the surrounding area go there to garden in a community setting. I'm thinking, what a great idea! I don't remember ever seeing anything like that here in the U.S. but it seems to make a lot of sense. I mean, why not turn gardening into a social activity? They probably share all sorts of tips and advice about gardening, share the things they grow, just simply have people to talk to while they're pulling weeds and watering stuff. I love it! I really think that you might not take notice of this seemingly small detail of Dutch life if you were traveling by car.

That night also included probably the most breathtaking sunset of the trip - above a field dotted with lazy cows. It was the kind of sunset where you literally stop and get off your bike to look at it, standing there speechless. Riding into the city of the Hague just after sundown was absolutely beautiful. We found a great little campsite (again, surrounded by canals) and set up our tent before heading out for some yummy pizza and wine at a sidewalk cafe. We were the only ones at the restaurant that night and we took our time eating and talking after an awesome first day on the road. The man who took our order and made our pizza by hand as we peeked though the window eventually told us in a very friendly voice, "Ok its time for you to leave now, please." And so we went.

The one point I hope to convey to whoever's out there reading this is that traveling by bike is hands down one of the most rewarding, enriching things I've ever experienced. I feel really lucky to have been a part of this crazy, amazing tour. Thanks to John and Will (you too, Sal, Catherine, Josh, Rob...)

Amsterdam

Amsterdam was a hoot and a holler people. And seeing that we're on a bike tour, it was very fitting to find ourselves in one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. Amsterdam is also a very small city, with close to 1 million people, so the streets can be very busy and if you're not careful you're just as liable to get hit by a biker as you are by a car.

Will and I made a mad dash from Rheine to Amsterdam in order to be there for the Dutch National Holiday - Queen's Day. As far as I could gather Queen's Day basically goes like this: everybody dresses up in orange clothing, floods the streets and gets all rowdy. And of course, there is drinking involved.

After making it in time for the holiday, we had about a week and a half before two friends joined us - my girlfriend Katie and good friend Sal from Los Angeles. So in the meantime we did a lot of relaxing, reading and drinking coffee. We were also accompanied by Rob for a weekend who took the train in from his temporary home in Paris. The quartet was dynamite!

The city is interlaced with canals and when the bridges are lit at night it really gives the place a magical feeling.

In Amsterdam everybody bikes. Well not everybody. But, as I learned from Professor Wray's book, Pedal Power, 40% of all trips (like to the store, school, etc) in Amsterdam are made by bike. That compares to 1% in the US. We've got work to do people. But beyond the pro-bike rhetoric, it is fascinating to see the way in which a biking culture has been developed and continues to grow. For example, it is not uncommon to see 4 people on one bike - 3 kids (one in the front and two in the back) and a mom or dad making the machine go. But what fascinated me most was the variation in demographics of bikers -- teenagers biking on dates; teenagers in mobs of 10, 2o or 30 people just riding around doing what teenagers do; moms and dads with multiple kids in tow, grandmas and grandpas with tulips in their front baskets, business executives in suits; twenty-somethings doing their thing; people with dogs in their front baskets or back panniers; really just everybody. And the bikes are designed for everything imaginable. I especially liked seeing the bikes with the wheel-barrow fixed to the front often carrying multiple children and/or pets.

A simple idea in this respect is brought to life by the Dutch - that the bike is a sensible and logical way to move one person from one place to another. Doing so is healthy; it reduces society's (beyond out-of-control) carbon footprint; it is cheaper than driving a car; and it is fun.