Netherlands: Unstructured Time in Amsterdam

As I mentioned before, there are two parts to the Netherlands trip I was on. The second part was unstructured time. During this unstructured time my traveling group and I went to several different cities, some of which I have already posted about. One city I haven't written about yet was our visit to Amsterdam. We spent three days there, one was devoted to visiting a school just outside the city, and one half a day was spent at the Anne Frank House. For the rest of the time, it was what we referred to as "unstructured" which translates to "do whatever you want." So, we did whatever we wanted in Amsterdam, which for me meant museuming and biking.

I have become enamored with the Netherlands. This adoration is mostly due to the biking culture that is there. It is simply astonishing. Really, I mean it, amazing. As a regular bike commuter both in cities that have large cyclist communities and those that have none (ahem, Lansing), I do have some experience with biking around. The Netherlands is an entirely different place for this. Of course I had always heard of the biking culture, but I wasn't entirely prepared for what I saw there. Bikes have their own lanes. They have their own stop lights. When it comes to the transportation hierarchy, bikes are at the top. (With the exception of larger cities such as Amsterdam and The Hague, the trams are at the top). But really, bikes are the top of the transportation food chain. All things stop for bikes. You get politely yelled at, or dinged by a bell if you step into a bike lane. Or walk in a bike lane. I'm sure I am a little too giddy about the biking culture there, but it really is, well, AWESOME. I want to learn Dutch so I can move there. And bike everywhere. My friend Heather came up with a term for bikes that have two kid seats and a kid trailer: The Maastricht Minivan.

So of course, I biked while there. In Amsterdam, Heather and I rented bikes (only 7 Euros a day!) and used them as our transportation to get around and hit museums. The 7 Euros a day got us single speed coaster brake bikes, and since it's pretty much flat in the Netherlands, you don't need much else. We rode around to the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, to a big park where we found some picnic sandwiches and chowed down. Heather got a little bell crazy and dinged almost everyone. She also came up with another term when we thought we could get to one road by crossing a little bridge, but alas, there was no bridge because there are so many canals they can't all be crossed in a straight line. Her term was "getting canaled." It was fabulous. Certainly there are other parts of Amsterdam, but well, it really is kind of weird. There are so many tourists in the Red Light district, and after about 8pm it starts to get creepy. But whelp, I was in Amsterdam so I needed to check out all the neighborhoods, but the best ones are just outside the center of the city, and the best way to get to those parts is by bike.