Another Bakfiets Shot

A follow-up post from yesterday. This was shot a few seconds after yesterday's photo. Although it's a bit blurry, the girls' reactions to the horse & carriage are great.

It's true that the bakfiets probably wouldn't make it in the U.S. (see yesterday's comments) -- you'd probably have to install airbags to make them legal.

Alternative Transportation Methods

In which would you rather tour Amsterdam ... a horse-drawn carriage or a bakfiets?

Lotsa Bikes: Where?Wednesday

Today we're in Amsterdam, looking at the bike park just outside of the main train station (Centraal Station). The 3-level "fietsenflat" has space for 2,500 bikes and floats over the canal.

Another "Your Guess Is As Good As Mine"

Spotted in Amsterdam. Significance? No idea whatsoever. Guesses: A work of art? Aftermath of a bad accident? A tornado? Too many biertjes? We'll never know...

Abandoned?

This looks like a perfectly rideable city bike, but notice how the grass has grown through the tires ... it's been sitting here for a while. I'm surprised nobody has snatched it up.

We're not abandoning the blog, but we won't have internet access for about a week, so see you then.

And apologies for not being able to return many comments this past week due to a hectic schedule.

Only in Amsterdam -- or so I thought!

Quickly snapped as they pedaled by, these guys looked to be having a great time on Het Fietscafe (The Bike Pub). You heard right, this is a pub on wheels ... you can rent this out and enjoy a refreshing beer while pedaling through the streets of Amsterdam.

I really thought this was an Amsterdam "thing" until I looked at the website. There are three other small towns in The Netherlands, along with Cologne (Germany) and Meer (Belgium) where you can rent a Fietscafe. The big surprise was that there's one in the U.S. too, and the even bigger surprise is that it's in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota.

Don't get me wrong ... Minneapolis/St. Paul is a great area, and they know how to have a good time up there. But I really expected it to be in someplace, well, warmer!

Anyway, you can see this in Amsterdam in any season, any weather (a little rain never bothers the Dutch), so I guess why not in the upper midwest U.S. ;)

Pay attention to this red!

Most of the bike lanes in the Netherlands are a different color to distinguish them from the road and pedestrian lanes. And they are generally a shade of red, like this one in front of our house in Wassenaar.

Bikes {fietsen} are king here ... having priority over cars and pedestrians, it takes a while for foreigners to get used to watching out for and yielding to bicycles and those pesky scooters {bromfiets}.

The most dreaded sound in all of the Netherlands is the bike bell. Especially when you're walking. When we hear a bell, we kind of freeze in anticipation of being struck by some wild bike rider. Generally they just swerve and give us the evil eye.

For a humorous look at bikes in Amsterdam through the eyes of a foreigner, check out this site.

Hats off to Beetle at Cologne Daily Photo ... the bike lanes are also red there and were featured as the theme day photo on July 1.

Study in Pink

This is one of the more interesting home decorations we've seen here, to say the least. We're not sure if there's some secret meaning to this, or if it's just someone's sense of humor.