Biking in the Netherlands

Biking around the Netherlands is both fun and easy.  The Dutch definitely like their bikes as it seems everyone has a bike!  

Bike Parking Garage by Central Station

Biking is the easiest and most used way of transportation around town.  I use my bike just about every day whether it is going to the grocery store, school, or further downtown in Amsterdam.  What I especially enjoy about biking in the Netherlands is that there are paths everywhere.  Bicycles basically own the streets in Amsterdam.  Bikes always have the right away over cars or pedestrians.  Well most of the time, caution is still advised when biking anywhere.  Also, it seems like 80% of people don’t stop for red lights while biking if no cars are coming.  I have to admit, after a couple days I quickly started running red lights too.  Oops.  But like my mom taught me, look both ways before crossing the street, so don’t worry, I have not been hit by a car yet.  Another thing I noticed about biking solid the bikes are made in the Netherlands.  I say that even though just about everyone from our group had bike problems at some point.  Many people had flat tires, had to replace tires, parts fell off, or just broke completely.  I was one of the more fortunate people with only having a flat tire and my chain falling off, easy but expensive repairs.  

My bike

But with all that said, the bikes are designed to last for a long time and withstand a lot of abuse.  All of our bikes were really old which caused all of our problems.  I guess that is what we get for buying the cheapest bikes we could find.  I have gone on several long bike trips also.  Early in the semester I biked to Haarlem and back to Amsterdam while biking a total of 50 km.  I also took a bike trip with a couple other guys to see the tulip fields (see earlier post) which had a total of 80 km in one day.  This was a really long trip but we were able to follow a bike route the whole way.  Biking is definitely the easiest and cheapest means of transportation around the Netherlands and it is also very healthy.  That may be one factor as to why there aren’t very many overweight people in Holland.  Biking in the Netherlands has been very enjoyable.  There is nothing better than taking a nice bike ride along a canal on a beautiful day.  I plan on biking quite a bit when I get back to the United States, I guess the Netherlands has changed me.