Bicycle Utopia

I have never been a hardcore cyclist, like those militant bikers who take over the streets of San Francisco the first (or last?) Friday of every month (I've heard they are even worse somewhere else, but don't remember....) I guess that is one area of my life that I am a little more mainstream. I have a car. I like my car. I prefer my car to the other options - taking horribly overcrowded and unpleasant public transportation, walking or riding a bike in traffic up and down hills, often against the wind and with unpredictable weather.

But before moving to San Francisco, I always had a bike. In Philadelphia it was my main means of transportation other than walking. In Tokyo I even had a bike and often rode it pretty far either to get places or just for fun. When I moved to San Francisco, I bought a bike, thinking I'd ride it, but I found the hills, the wind and the weather a challenge. And then I got a car. My bike got ridden less and less and then it was stolen and that was the end of my bike riding days.

So, coming here, I knew there were a lot of bikes, but I didn't expect to find myself riding one. I had planned on trying to rent a bike for the time I will be in Spain, but never thought about doing it here. Now, I think that anyone who comes to Amsterdam MUST rent a bike!

I picked up my bike this morning about 10:30. The girl who was working at Mike's Bikes was very helpful, which was surprising because she had this hip, cool, Haight Street kind of look. I'm pretty sure she was Dutch but she spoke English with an Australian accent.

I got a discount because I took the bike tour with them the other day. I was told that I'd get 50% off the daily rate, making it 5 Euros per day including insurance. A pretty good deal. But I asked if they had a weekly rate. It was 48 Euros per week, and I got 50% off of that, so it was only 24 Euros. It was like I was getting two days free, so I got it for a week.

I also bought a map with bike trails outside of Amsterdam. Tomorrow I am going to try the ride to Edam, the place where the cheese comes from. It looks like a nice route along the coast and the girl at Mike's said Edam is a really nice city.

Today I wanted to get my bike legs back, so I went back the same route we went on the countryside bike tour. I rode along the dkye along the Amstel River until I got to the Rembrant Windmill. Then, I turned and found this park right next to the windmill. I didn't know what it was but I thought I'd ride through and see.

There was a big gate that was open and some bikes locked up outside. I saw a sign with a picture of a bicycle and something in Dutch that I thought said something about locking your bike, but it didn't have a line drawn through the bike (the international "no" symbol) so I assumed it was okay for me to ride my bike, that the sign was just saying to lock your bike if you leave it and walk.

After all, I am a dopey tourist.

I rode through the park, passing several people along the way and then passing through an area with different little restaurants, miniature golf, etc. Finally I came to kind of a dead end and was about to go out a gate of the park but decided to return to the entrance and retrace my steps so I wouldn't get lost.

A woman came out of a building behind me shouting something. I had no idea who she was talking to or what she was saying, I thought she was calling a friend.

Then a guy drove up in a little golf cart thing and waved to pull me over. He said something to me in Dutch. I said, "Do you speak English?" He said, "you must lock your bike up outside". I apologized and left. The woman who had been shouting, it turns out at me, walked back towards her little house, which was a kind of guard's house or something and scowled at me as I passed, I smiled dopily and left.

Now I had no idea where I was but I turned in the direction that I thought Amsterdam was and headed on through unfamiliar streets.

I was riding along saying "Where the f am I?" Turning every now and then where I thought I should turn and eventually, miraculously I stumbled across the Albert Cuyp Market.

This market is held daily in the De Pjip section of Amsterdam. It was where I wanted to go on my way back from the Windmill but since I was lost I had no idea how to get there. So it was a miracle that I stumbled upon it, especially the market.

I locked my bike up, dopily. One guy was watching me, I don't know if it was because he thought I was stealing the bike (since I didn't know how to operate the lock and key), or he thought I was leaving and wanted my parking space, or he thought I was dopey.

Eventually I got the back tire locked and the big heavy chain unlocked and locked again through the front tire and frame. Bicycle theft is a huge problem here, which is very odd. In Japan it was umbrellas.

I walked through the market which was really nice. It felt very working class and international. There were cheeses, fruit and vegetables, pickles, olives, clothes, housewares, all kinds of stuff.

I was searching for two things - freshly made stroopwafels, and the little thing that I plug into the wall to diffuse the citronella oil to keep away mosquitos. I found neither.

I dopily unlocked my bike, while a girl patiently waited for my parking space, and took off. I had no idea where I was and could not figure it out from my map. But I kept riding, turning every now and then when I thought I should. I was hoping to find the Amstel river again and return to the windmill one more time and return to Amsterdam a little more pre-determinedly.

I ended up at the Rijksmuseum, the National Museum, which is undergoing renovation. It didn't look open and I wasn't in the mood for a museum, so I sat along the canal in front of the museum and opened up my map. After I figured out where I was and where I wanted to go, I ate a sandwich I brought with me (cheese with really good mustard on a really nice whole wheat role).

I had a really nice ride back up along the Amstel to the windmill and then along a canal that took me to Amsterdam Bos a huge woodsy park, and eventually back into Amsterdam and home.

I got lost a few times today, partly because I didn't understand signs, or didn't pay attention to them, or maybe because there were no signs posted. But amazingly, I arrived back home safely and soundly.

The bike paths are amazing. There are paths that are just for bikes completely separated from traffic, some of them going through beautiful countryside, or along canals, and then others that go next to traffic. In some places it gets pretty crowded and at one point I was actually in traffic.

Other than the dopey tourists, everyone else is very bike-friendly. Cars do not beep at bikes, they yield to them. It's actually the other bikers who are a little more impatient, and sometimes rude in their behavior, but a very small minority.

There are signs along bike paths and an ingenious network of paths that are clearly marked by numbers, like highways for bikes!

It was a beautiful day, sunny, clear and dry. A perfect day for a bike ride.

I might go out for a little cruise through the city later this evening or I might rest up for my trip to Edam.

And for other bike good news, I heard from a bicycle rental place I e-mailed in Sevilla and they said they will charge me 90 Euros for a month and a half. That's a great rate - less than what I am paying per week here even with my discount. So it looks like I am going to be having a cycling sabbatical!