When my Dutch friend Renske learned that I would be in Amsterdam this weekend, she immediately turned to the computer and pulled up the Amsterdam weather channel. She enthused, “If the weather is nice on Friday, you have to go to Friday Night Skate! You should bring your rollerblades. You can even leave them there […]
Read More Friday Night SkateThe sheer tonnage of bikes in Amsterdam is best experienced at Amsterdam Centraal, the transit station in the heart of the city. From here, you can take train, trolley, ferry and taxis to all points. I took a train into the city from the airport and couldn’t believe my eyes when I debarked. For one, […]
Read More Bike Parking at Amsterdam CentraalI’m blogging from a weathered bench in front of my friend Will’s flat on Nieuwe Lelie Straat. Meadow rue and geraniums overflow from two pots on my left. The honeysuckle and rose climbing the doorway are lanquorously bathed in slow-setting sun. I love these narrow, cobbled streets. Young and old crank past on beater Dutch […]
Read More Afternoon scenes on Nieuwe Lelie StraatDropping into Amsterdam has been like waking up in the Matrix after selling out my friends to an Agent. As an urban bike commuter and bicycle propagandizer, my deepest, darkest bike-topian fantasies have been realized. Rusted piles of Dutch bikes sprout on every corner like fungal masses after a rain. Cyclopaths wind labyrinthine through stately […]
Read More Pilgrimage to Bike Mecca
Flaming Bike 