Biking

When we arrived in Amsterdam I was thrilled to see the masses and masses of bikes and cyclists making their way through the city. I wanted to be immediately on a bike and using one of the hundreds of dedicated bike lanes. This seemed to be biking nirvana! What also was fantastic was Sylvie sharing my enthusiasm to find some bikes to rent and start exploring the city.

Sylvie is a pretty good cyclist and showed she was up to some longish rides when we had the canal boat and we could bike beside the canal on nice, not to busy, paths and meet up with the boat at a lock. However, after a short period of time just walking in Amsterdam, it was very apparent that biking was not a completely leisurely event, where one could stop when you felt like it and adjust a helmet or just be seven and have a very important question about an imaginary dog be answered immediately while taking up the entire bike path. Nope biking in Amsterdam is about getting places (not fast, ) but definitely biking with a purpose on a three speeder. I was apprehensive about having a seven year old (or our 7 year old) out on her own on Amsterdam streets. Also Scott and I had taken advantage of the Velibe, bike lending program in Paris and toughly enjoyed it, although somewhat dismayed to find ourselves spit out onto the Champs d'Ellysee and all it's traffic at one point (not ready for the Tour de France yet!). With our Paris experiences we thought it was best for Sylvie not to be riding her own bike around Amsterdam.

Initially we thought that this would not be a problem as in Amsterdam kids are transported by bike in a multitude of different fashions (all without bike helmets) and there are many different bike styles modified to moving kids around (even a bike 'bus' that a daycare was using). With all these options visible on the street and a couple of on line leads for bike rental companies that had tandem bikes modified for kids, or buckets in the front of bikes for kids to ride in, we thought this would be easy.

Well not completely so .... It turns out that these tandem or modified bikes are considered 'novelty' bikes and the companies actually have very few in stock. Day one of trying to find a suitable bike was unsuccessful and although I was very enamoured with Sylvie's enthusiasm to bike in Amsterdam I did not think it was going to happen. However, day two was met with success and we got a tandem bike where Sylvie sat in the front and could peddle, but I had control of the steering and brakes in the back. Sylvie loved it and very quickly took to being a 'front' seat driver, where I struggled to maneuver a rather unwieldy bike through Amsterdam streets. It was fun but challenging. I quickly realized that although everyone does seem to bike in Amsterdam, there is a bit more anarchy occurring in the bike lanes and streets than at first appears. For starters, bike lanes seem dedicated to anything with two-ish wheels, this includes scooters and motorbikes and tiny tiny cars that make smart cars look like SUVs. Also traffic signals like red lights, including those specifically for bikes seem to 'suggested' stops for cyclists. So here I am in an oversized bike that has a turning radius of the Titanic and to actually get anywhere I need to throw caution to the wind and put the front of the bike (where Sylvie is sitting) out into traffic and hope for the best. Well it seemed to work okay and Sylvie was very disappointed when we had to return the bike the next day.

So although, it is is definitely 'the thing' to do in Amsterdam, I think I am going to put my bike rides in the Loire valley and sauntering along the canal trail as more pleasurable than cycling in Amsterdam.