American bike

very american bike (to me also the type of bike, not just the stars and colors, except the basket on the front) parked at a very dutch canal! :)

here you can once again clearly see why many bikes end up in canals....

Big bear...

ah, and me. lunging.... :) after a day of biking through amsterdam (where we passed lunging rembrandt, the fancy gym, the meadows and the marathon, i.e. nearly all my recent posts), we wanted to finally go home. not too far from our place was some roadwork and we had to take a detour. suddenly we faced a giant bear at a rather tiny playing field..... of course we had to stop again so i could take some pictures! (well, tim in this case...)

this bear made of concrete is 11 metres tall.... its called "staalman" (literally its "steel man", as staalmanplein is the name of the square), and is standing there since 2011. the buildings around the square were all recently built. the little park at the feet of the bear was co-designed by the kids in the neighborhood. one of their requests was a sculpture. they asked the dutch artist florentijn hofman (hes responsible for the giant floating duck and other giant sculptures around the world), and together they choose a bear. with a pillow under its arm. the pillow symbolizes bedtime; children should goto bed on time instead of being out on the street till late, so they are well rested again the next day. moreover, the pillow represents moving houses; all the people in the neighborhood had to literally take their pillows and leave their old houses for the new ones to be built....

Fancy gym

while biking around amsterdam, we passed by this huge house (not too far from yesterday's picture, btw). it has a pool behind the black vases, but the most remarkable thing (to me at least) was the gym. can you see it in the back? its more or less a slim glass box with everything a gym needs, so it seems!! how fancy to be working out in a glass box, for everyone to see, while you yourself can look out over green meadows...?

while i was taking some pictures (i was not satisfied with any of them, but i didnt dare getting too close, i wasnt sure people with such a fancy house like simple people like me taking pictures of their property!), a couple biked past us and the lady said "well, not that i have EVER seen someone working out there..."

and well yes... im not sure i would like to work out in a glass box like that....

Bikes, bikes!

this is just a small selection of all the bikes we saw at the cancelled balloon festival. but when it started to rain, most of them were gone in no time! we really didnt want to bike in the rain (nor behind all the other people, most certainly biking slower than us... ;) ), so we just stood in the field and waited it out (there even was some hail!!). so yes, i guess it was a good decision that they cancelled it, i for sure would not have wanted to be in a hot-air balloon with rain and thunder...... (also really stupid how we watched the weather the entire day. but when it remained more or less dry, we just went and only saw the dark clouds upon arrival).

but isnt this a cute bike?! i like the big basket in the front. this is something that became fashionable the past few years, to carry all your stuff (instead of putting it on the back rack, or on your back). i have a much smaller wired one. i would like such a sturdy big one, if only it didnt make parking so much more difficult! (bike parking is a serious problem. nowadays i often goto the train station by bike, but i have to leave at least 5 minutes earlier so that i can find a spot to park my bike... now many people are still on holidays, so i expect it to get even worse in a few weeks).

some googling and i found the website belonging to this basket/bike. it belongs to a lady living near groningen, and, as you might have guessed, she bakes pies and cakes to order, and even delivers them in her neighborhood....

Summer weather?!

the weather?! rain. and rain. some more rain. ah, and rain. by the way, its cold too. summer? noooo, not at all. feels more like autumn. buuuhhhh. i cannot remember for how long the weather is really crappy now, but its been quite a while. and its still raining. the past week we mostly had rain. and this weekend we had some. we were in Groningen, as i really wanted to go to a special happening on saturday evening. despite the forecasts, the weather was actually not too bad on saturday. we went shopping a bit in the city center. then we quickly went home, had a small dinner and rushed out again for the main event of the weekend, and something i seriously had looked forward too. not in the least as i would finally take some pictures again...

we biked 10 kms to a pasture somewhere outside groningen. there it would happend; the hot-air balloon festival. last year it was so crowded that police at some point asked people not to come anymore. in the morning we had read that despite the rain, the event would take place. and well, during the day we hardly had any rain, so we just went. the maximum-allowable-number-of-hot-air-balloons-in-the-netherlands would fill the air. and some would have funny shapes. jeeejjjj!! when we arrived (a bit late, we were worried it had already started), quite some people were about to leave. why? we asked. look, they said, and pointed to the sky (it might be that people from groningen speak less than people from amsterdam). oopps, it was indeed quite dark suddenly... but... the organizers announced that there was a chance it would still happen, so we waited. walked around a bit. and then... at the moment the organizers announced the entire thing was blown off because of bad weather and thunderstorms and what not, rain came indeed down like crazy. luckily we had one small umbrella and just stood there, like many others, waiting for it to stop..... (some people even found shelter in the dixies standing around, ugh....) while waiting i took this picture, as you can see the sky doesnt look too bad, but right behind and above us was quite a different story. and well.... merely 45 minutes after we arrived we biked back again, no hot air balloons for us.... just a little more rain while biking... :(

Parking & Canals

i took this picture last monday. ah, only now i realize that was yesterday. indeed, i took this picture yesterday, but somehow it seems ages ago... :) as you see, it was very sunny....

i guess most people know amsterdam has a lot of canals. 165 in total, some 60 miles of water, combined. there are also a lot of bikes, cars, houses, and not a lot of space. so... parking is often done right at the waterfront. unfortunately, its very important to always lock your bike to something (as i have written several times before). not only because someone might otherwise steal your bike.. every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bikes are fished out of the water!! im pretty sure most people dont have the habit of throwing their bikes into the water on purpose (i certainly dont have that desire), but someone else might just do it for you. here you can see a video of the piles of bikes coming out of the canals...

it also happens that cars get into the water. it is estimated that around 35 cars end up on the bottom of an amsterdam canal. they are parked at the edge as well, and having the car in reverse gear when expecting to go forward is sometimes all it takes to end up in the canal..... (this happened to one of tims colleagues. she got out fine but the car didnt... we dont need to park next to the water but just to be sure we did get an emergency hammer recently....)

Dog transport

dogs have their own place on a bike!! comfortable, in the fresh air and with a view....

Amsterdamse bos

sunday late afternoon the weather was so nice, that we went biking a bit. we biked to the amsterdamse bos (i.e. the amsterdam forest), not too far from our place. i had expected it to be very crowded, as the park next to our house was, but it wasnt. there were just a few people, so we choose a nice spot along the water. this forest is huge, and there are many trails for biking, running or hiking. theres a lot of rowing on the water. and apparently you can swim here as the water is very clean (but it didnt look too inviting to me, and for that its anyways still too cold). its not too far from the airport, so you can see many planes taking off. this year the park exists 80 years! it looks all very natural, but it was entirely manmade 80 years ago. the first part of the park opened in 1937, and in 1964 it was completed. its located in an especially created polder, 4 metres below sea level. ah, and something i didnt expect; its 3 times bigger than the new york central park!

By bike!!!

while we had yet another storm on the 24th with lots of rain and wind, christmas day was rather sunny and not too cold. as you might know, we dont have a car anymore. so.... yesterday we decided to bike to my parents instead of going there by public transport. the time it would take was probably the same anyways, only the effort would be different... :) and so we went, first through the rather empty city center of amsterdam (how lovely it is to bike through sunny amsterdam when its nearly empty, without annoying scooters, especially!), then through diemen, and then finally along the provincial higway with some headwind, to weesp (this is approximately how we biked, how nice of google to also provide biking routes!). it took us just a little over an hour, without arriving exhausted.

above our bikes, the most colorful one in the middle of course is mine! the third is my sisters, we did a tiny bit of sightseeing in weesp as well during the day.

we didnt really plan to also bike the entire way back in the evening, but instead bike to the nearest subway station and take the bike with us. but as we were going, we decided we could as well bike it again. there was just one scary part along the provincial highway that was literally pitch dark; not one street light! the lights on our bikes were not strong enough and so we could go only very slowly, afraid to ride into the ditch next to the bike path. when a car approached us from the opposite direction, we literally had to stop biking as his (big!! grrrr) lights were blinding us entirely, already while he was still i guess hundred metres away from us. luckily that was only once and the remainder of our journey there was enough light (especially in amsterdam street lights are plenty).....

if we still had had the car, we most likely wouldnt have done this, but it was fun!

Dumped portrait

after we had put our bikes among these here (always park your bike between others so that it doesnt stand out; especially if it looks nice. if it blends in with the others, at least i think, the chance of it getting stolen are a tiny bit slimmer. a tiny bit...), i saw this portrait! after we had walked around in the city center, had coffee and pie, visited a museum, the portrait was still standing there... i really wondered why!! did someone trash it? did someone else find it there and decided to put it out? questions questions! :)

Scooter terrorists!

biking in amsterdam can be crazy at times. there are so many bikes! and they are all in such a hurry (or not, and then they slow you down...). then there are the cars, buses, pedestrians, trams, tourists. tourists on the bike lane. tourists on bikes on the bike lane.... but the absolutely worst are the stupid scooters you can see above! those things above are for lazy people!! people who dont want to bike... obviously, its not that warm in the netherlands anymore; this was taken back in august.. heres the problem; the blue license plate indicates that they are allowed on the bike lane, yet they go much faster than bikes! officially they may go 25 km/h (a helmet is not required, one of the reasons they are so popular!!), but often they go much faster. so biking is almost never peaceful, at least not in amsterdam; there is always a scooter wanting to pass you; if they cant, they usually will continue to honk until you move aside (and many get aggressive when you dont move, or not fast enough, i always refer to them as terrorists for that reason), or they just zip right past you at crazy speed, scaring you in the process (or nearly bumping into incoming traffic). worst of all; like i wrote before, scooters are also used to rob bicyclists of their possessions. when passing you, they just grab your bag right from your shoulder... seriously, these machines are one of the reasons i often do not enjoy biking in amsterdam.... since they are faster, they are also in front of you when waiting for a traffic light. really nice, inhaling all those exhaust fumes!

well, i saw on the news this week im not the only one!! most bikers really dislike them and, also not unimportant, in most traffic accidents a scooter is involved. so... many people say they should be banned from the bike lane, and move to the "normal road", together with the cars. tests are being conducted to see whether this is safer. i think for sure its safer for the bicyclists, but not for the scooters; now they will be the slower ones amongst the cars. perhaps then they will finally realize how it feels to be chased by a motorized vehicle.....

Parking fail!

i saw this last friday, and i just had to stop and take a picture. im just wondering whether it is a joke, or if someone really thought to securely lock his/her bike to something....? thats most definitely not in the book of how to properly attach your bike to something immovable to prevent it from getting stolen..... 

look at the mess of bikes behind it. it looks like that about anywhere in the netherlands. most of the bikes have been left there, are forgotten, not needed or not working anymore. problem is; which ones are those?! they take up valuable bike parking space and that can be quite frustrating. at some places they tag all bikes, and after a set period of time, all the bikes that still have the tag are removed. then the entire process starts over again... the above bike at least does not have to be cut loose :D

Fascinating clouds

another picture from the zaanse schans where we were 2 weeks ago. the clouds were absolutely stunning while we were there. the upper path is for pedestrians and the lower for bikes (and the occasional car, i guess only people who live around here are allowed to drive there). whenever a pedestrian dared to set foot on the bike path, bicyclists furiously rang their bells.... i guess they are tired of all those tourists constantly slowing them down by suddenly jumping in front of them...

it has gotten pretty cold this week. no biking without gloves anymore! however, especially when going for a longer bike ride (i would say longer than 5-10 minutes) you should really dress less than what you would want. yes, the first few minutes on your bike you will be cold, but each and every time there is this moment where you suddenly get hot, and then you will be glad not being overdressed (of course, you do need to wear a hat and gloves, but the jacket really should not be too warm). the other option of course is to bike slowly, but then be prepared to be overrun by impatient "real bicyclists". (tim already thinks i am biking too slow, although i think im going at a decent speed....)

Details, details....

recently i wrote that you always have to lock your bike to something immovable, and in addition, you always have to lock your front wheel to the frame. here you can see what happens when you forgot that little detail; they take your bike without the front wheel.... all the other bikes are locked properly, as you see. unfortunately, you see this rather often. of course it is sad that you have to lock your bike with at least 2 locks in the first place, but thats just another detail....

tim has some days off since he worked crazy hours during the weekend. so that was nice... we went to 2 photography museums today, both on the same canal. the above we saw while walking from one museum to the other. the exhibits in both museums were a bit disappointing, but so were my own pictures...

this is one for theme day! to see the other participants, go here!

Het Rijksmuseum

2 days ago i showed you the pond overlooking the museum square. turning around, you see the rijksmuseum. to the left there is still some construction going on so you cannot really see how huge the building is! it opened in 1885, and was built to mainly display the paintings of the 16th and 17th century dutch masters. 

as i mentioned before, the building has been closed for 10 years for renovation (financial troubles and what not), and re-opened just a few months ago. there is a passageway underneath the museum that you can see here, which was originally built for a tram line, but that never happened. motorized vehicles were allowed until 1931. after that, only bikes were allowed. but... while the museum was closed, bikes werent allowed either. in this picture you can see how huge the museum is, and the red lines indicate the more dangerous routes bicyclists had to take while the passageway was closed. there are 2 main museum entrances under the passageway on either side of the street, and the new director of the museum wanted to keep the street closed for bikes; it would be too dangerous for especially tourists. eventually in court (!) it was decided that the underpass should re-open to bicyclists.

to me, biking in amsterdam is still a challenge! tim says im behaving like an old lady, but i never biked in amsterdam before. that, combined with not biking at all in the usa for the past 3 years makes me indeed a little hesitant at times. but.... there is just sooo much traffic! you have to watch out for cars, trams, buses, pedestrians, other bikes... then you also have to be careful not to get stuck in a tram track (im still extra carefull when crossing the tracks, and there are a LOT of them), the crazy fast scooters that are allowed on the bike path (luckily they are banned from the passageway above), and all the construction going on everywhere so that sometimes the street literally stops in front of you and you have to either bike through the sand, over shaky boards or have to take another route altogether. on top of all that, the city center is full with tourists on bikes (who clearly do not know how to bike), and people (accidentally) stepping on the bike lanes.... causing peak stress levels for someone who is used to biking in utrecht, a much smaller city, with less crazy traffic...

Those trees!

this is a little outside the city center of amsterdam, where there is a little more space for wide bike paths as the one you see above (although many bike paths are actually not as narrow as i had expected!). the trees here are numerous and so very pretty! they are all crooked, hanging to the same side... of course, it started raining a little after taking this picture. at least we were almost at our destination... 

as you can see, you do not necessarily need a "bakfiets" to transport kids. a seat mounted on the back works as well. some also have one on the front, so that you can transport 2 kids... :) then you can hang your big bag of groceries on your handlebar... just make sure to keep your balance!!  me and my sister once were transported like that (hard to imagine now), but never in such a fancy seat as you see above.

Hello rain....

this was taken on saturday, when the weather was still pleasant.... all bridges in amsterdam (or any other dutch city) have bikes on them (at least the bridges that cannot open to let boats through, haha), as it is the perfect place to lock your bike to. one rule i at least never try to break is to always attach my bike to something that cannot move... if not, thieves can just pick up your bike, with as many locks as you like, put it in their van and use all tools they have at home to cut the locks... the other day i heard a couple explaining to a cop that "they were locked together... and now gone". i presume they were talking about their bikes. i had just parked mine and thus made my trip to the store as short as possible, as i dont want to have my new bike stolen as well... :( even with additional locks i am not comfortable parking my bike at the moment. i guess that feeling will take a while before going away....

anyways... all bridges in amsterdam are decorated with flowers, its so pretty! in the city center, as above, they are even on this metal hanging poles. i really like it! weatherwise today was awful. its cold suddenly, and it has been raining the entire day. hardly a moment it was dry, and at times the rain was coming down with such force i wonder whether those flowers will survive... on top of that the wind is howling around... byebye summer, i guess....

Hipster family

not only dogs can be transported by bike, also entire families.... :) nowadays its very hip to move your kids in a "bakfiets", as you can see above. i guess in english you would call it a "cargobike". basically its a giant wooden box at the front of the bike. during the early part of the 20th century these bikes were used by tradesmen to deliver bread, milk, mail, etc.... (as wikipedia tells me). then they were used to transport furniture etc within larger cities like amsterdam where the streets are too narrow and parking is horrible. but in recent years, they became very popular with hipster families to transport their kids in and nowadays you see them everywhere! some are bigger than the one above, so that next to the kids, you can transport your groceries (or even more kids!). some are covered, so that they can be transported in whatever kind of weather. but mostly, they are huge, and they take up a lot of space... they are not easy to maneuver either... (not that i know from experience, i never tried! but you can see it... when hipster mom is trying to turn a corner...). and... to get to speed takes a bit longer as they are so heavy (especially with several kids in it, haha); they are not motorized, so it all depends on your legs.... :) (here you can read a blog about the experiences with the bakfiets from a family in portland, usa (!!)).

tim couldnt keep his eyes off this perfectly manicured family. the little boy with the hat placed semi-nonchalant on his long hair, the parents with their fancy pants and sneakers, and of course the bakfiets to make the picture complete...

and me and tim? sunday night we realized we miss the american lazy convenience of jumping in your car to go to the local cinema, where parking is free and never a problem.... the thought of having to get on our bikes to go see a movie was not appealing with the weather cooled down, and luckily it wasnt as suddenly heavy rain started and lasted throughout the night (and i cannot even think of a dutch cinema where you can go by car without parking troubles or not having to pay....!)

Moving anything!

with a bike, you can move about anything... here, to the right you see a man moving his dog!! i must say, i had never seen that before, so i had to take a picture when i saw this today (i have seen women moving their dogs in a little basket on the front of their bike). the dog was really enjoying it. unfortunately, i only could take a picture while the dog was not looking our way... :( we were waiting for a red light and i had to put my camera away before it would turn green again, as otherwise all the bikers behind me would get mad at me moving so slowly (biking really is a race, and you will get angry looks, or even yelled at if you dont move fast enough, most certainly people will use their "fietsbel" to let you know you have to move out of their way immediately).

i love those saddle bags and use them to get groceries home (their size determines how much groceries you can get at once... luckily they can be pretty big!), my bag (i dont like biking while having to carry my bag), or whatever else. unfortunately, with my bike stolen last month, i also lost my colorful saddle bags, and i have not yet bought new ones... :(( they are pretty expensive, and i want bags that are really big (like those on the left bike). at least i do have a little basket on the front again, for light stuff (but no dog for me!!)

MY bike!!!

i showed you the I Amsterdam sculpture already... but this photo also has my bike on it. its one of the few photos with my bike in amsterdam, and there wont be any more as my bike was stolen this week.... :(( buhuhuhuhuh. all those years i lived in utrecht i never had my bike stolen, while i parked it everywhere. i was however always careful to lock it to something you cannot move (like one of the many bridges or a streetlight, sometimes hard to find, as all dutch cities are literally flooded with bikes attached to things that cannot move), and then i used an additional lock to attach my front wheel to my frame (and if possible, would lock that also to something that cannot move). 

i didnt yet have the second lock since i live in amsterdam. but i just went out for a bit, parked my bike at the subway station, locked it with the simple bike lock that every bike has and an additional one attached to the bridge. when back, that lock was still hanging there, but my bike was nowhere to be found.... :( buhuhuhuhuhuh. i was so happy with the pink basket on the front (i had found it at a trash receptacle, perfect for my american water bottle), and look at the saddle bags!! this was MY bike and someone thought they could just take it and did that..... in broad daylight!! :(((( in the days since i have been looking everywhere to see if if my bike is standing around, but ofcourse it isnt. i looked on the internet if someone offered it for sale (thats how someone recently found her bike, and the thief, back), but no luck of course.... 

so... if you have seen this bike. its MINE. if you took it, bring it back, its not yours!! according to the internet, there are approximately 18 million bikes in the netherlands (1.1 bikes per inhabitant), and many of them are stolen each year. the exact number is hard to determine, as most people dont even file a report. i got a new one already... as well as 2 big locks.....