We spent only a week in the Netherlands, and my Mom already covered most of Amsterdam with her post, so this will be short. And that’s the only thing that is short about the Netherlands. Yes, this nation is home to the tallest people in the world, and it’s frankly unsettling. Men are on average 6 feet and women are 5’7. It’s a land of minor giants that ride bikes and speak better English than Americans.
Still, we had a good time there, and fulfilled one of my own personal desires - riding a bike in the Netherlands. I was always under the impression that this was a country that did bike infrastructure correctly, but during my time in Amsterdam I started to think I was wrong. Sure, it was completely safe to bike there, with protected lanes and everyone from kids to the elderly pedaling away in relative peace. But my experience as a bicyclist is almost entirely from New York City, and I started to wonder if there could be such a thing as too much bike infrastructure. New York is a madhouse where you’re guaranteed to be hit by a car eventually, and bicyclists are among the most despised categories of New Yorkers (just barely losing out to tourists that stand in the middle of the sidewalk and the SHOWTIME! kids), but it’s exciting. There’s an adrenaline rush that comes from avoiding a door flung open in your path or swerving to avoid a jaywalker. Not to mention the beautiful freedom of swearing at someone as you whiz away, totally immune to their hapless attempts to extend the shouting match, huffing and puffing after you and throwing their hands up in frustration. It’s fun and dangerous, and gives a special flavor to life in NYC.
In Amsterdam, it’s another world. There is no anger, only mild disapproval if a pedestrian steps into the bike lane. Cars are relegated to main streets and seem to be an afterthought, as if their drivers have forgotten they are in charge of a machine that could easily kill any insolent biker that dares to get in their way. Everyone and everything gives way to bicyclists, and these lords of the urban thoroughways blithely zip about with no helmets (no need), carting around kindergarteners and flowers as if an Escalade couldn’t sideswipe them at any moment. Bikes have won the war in Amsterdam, and of course it’s better for the environment and better for everyone’s blood pressure, but it freaked me the hell out.
Fast forward to the countryside, and things felt much better. The cowed obedience of drivers in Amsterdam was more like respectful space on country roads. Most of the time you could follow a lovely bike path through the woods or alongside a small road, and when you actually shared the asphalt with vehicles they would take great pains to give you oodles of space if they passed you. Again, I felt a little niggle in the back of my mind every time a car calmly and slowly passed me instead of whizzing by with a foot of clearance, but I was getting used to it. It felt more natural, since I’ve never biked much in the countryside anyway, so have fewer ingrained habits to fight against. Still, a few honks and someone rolling down their window to shout “ASSHOLE” would have made me feel more comfortable.
Here’s what we did, and I highly recommend something like this to anyone visiting the Netherlands: we found a nice little place to stay in the town of Voorthuizen, which is as about the middle of nowhere as you can get in a country the size of Maryland. This little town had a huge bike shop, which also did rentals. We rented our Dutch cruisers, returned our helmets after we realized nobody ever wears them, and went biking for three days, returning to our cozy cabin every evening.
We saw an old Hanseatic town, ate some fish, saw weird art in the middle of a forest, went to a sand sculpture park, appreciated some Van Gogh paintings, and encountered lots and lots of cows. In case you haven’t heard, the Netherlands is quite flat, perhaps in an attempt to make up for the frightening height of its populace. This makes for ideal bicycling conditions, except when the wind comes in with no obstacles and blasts your face off.
We departed the Netherlands for Germany after a few days and I must say that I will probably be back. I really enjoyed our short time there, and we didn’t get to see any windmills or clogs, so there is definitely more to do.
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