Bike Tour of Amsterdam

  Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sunday, August 31, 2008

There is one crucial piece of information that I have left out about the Netherlands ... they REALLY love bikes here. I'm not kidding, it's unbelievable. The sheer quantity of bikes is insane. Bike always have the right of way, followed by pedestrians, THEN cars. Bizarre!
In case you don't believe me, here are some pictures of the 4 story bike parking facility outside of the train station in Amsterdam. The one in Leiden is nothing to scoff at, but this one just blows my mind every time I see it.

So Many Bikes

4 Story Bikes

In order to fully join the spirit of the Netherlands, a few of us decided to take a biking tour of Amsterdam and the surrounding countryside. We had an amazing time (minus the sore bums today!). This is the group of us on our hoggs ;)

Crew on the Hoggs

Part of the trip was stopping at a cheese farm/clog factory. I tried a pair of clogs on, but they didn't really fit all that well (I'm a dork, and it was game day, it's cool).

Perfect Fit

There was a TON of cheese! It was sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet. 

Thumbs Up Cheese

Then they showed us how they make clogs. The machine looks pretty ancient, but it's actually decently efficient. I think it takes all of 4 minutes to make a pair of clogs. (There are clogs everywhere too!) Apparently people still where the clogs when they're working in the field or their gardens. This has yet to be seen, So I'm not sure if I believe it.

Clog Maker

TONS of Clogs

We also road all over the city. We saw some nice parks ... one of which people can now legally have sex in ... if it's after dark ... and no one is "watching". I saw a guy roll a joint on the seat of his motorcycle while our tour guide was talking to us ... Crazy!

Afterward, we headed back to Leiden. The dutch are known for their pancakes, so decided to stop for sustenance. The pancakes are somewhere in between crepes and American pancakes in thickness, but are the size of a platter. They're not sweet, and they put just about anything you want in them. Mine had ham, cheese, and pineapple. SOOOO good!

Pancake

There was also a music festival in Leiden Friday and Saturday Night. They set up barges in the canal to hold the concert stage. We went Friday night. They played mostly jazz music (not my favorite), so we chose not to go back after our LONG day on Saturday. We decided a wine and cheese picnic was a much better use of our time. Chaos pretty much ensued, but we had tons of fun.

Floating Concert Stage

Other than that, not a whole lot going on here. Exploring and reading pretty much sums it up.

I know that some of you have a burning desire to send me stuff ;) You can feel free to send anything to me at:

Rebecca Boyer
Webster University Leiden
Boommarkt 1
2311 EA
Leiden, The Netherlands