Bicycle No. 19: Saturday March 31, 2007

Bikes on the Rozengracht also make handy dog-tethering posts. Not sure where the owner was, but Fido here didn't seem too worried about being abandoned -- not as worried as I'd be if PJ chained me to a bike on the street. Ahem.

Bicycle No. 18: Friday March 16, 2007

A visiting US colleague recently asked if anyone in Amsterdam wore cycle helmets. Simply put, no. OK, you occasionally see some small children wearing them, but the attitude in the photo above is far more common. Does this mean, then, that people get killed or injured left, right, and center, she asked? Again, no. Much of the time, bikes are carefully separated from cars and pedestrians; for the rest of it, cars drive far too slowly (thanks to tortuous one-way systems and speed bumps) to do much damage even if they hit you. And, I guess, nearly all drivers are probably also cyclists -- or their parents/siblings/spouses/children/friends are. And, if a car hits a bike, it's automatically the car's fault -- regardless of how stupidly the cyclist was cycling. A great incentive to drive carefully, and one that should be adopted elsewhere.

Bicycle No. 17: Monday March 12, 2007

It's bin day on the Keizersgracht -- a day when a bike becomes a removal lorry. The canny Dutch, reluctant to leave a great (i.e., free) bargain behind, start loading up items onto their bikes. This old boy has got himself a nice glass cabinet, complete with light fixture in the top, has secured it to his bike, and is now going to wheel it home. Hurrah for proactive recycling! (PJ will be most annoyed; he had his eye on something rather similar in last Thursday's collection.)

Bicycle No. 16: Sunday March 11, 2007

I took this a couple of weeks ago on a stroll around Amsterdam -- it's actually two bikes, only one of which is attached to the rather large trailer. I'm impressed that anyone would even consider trying to cycle round with these ladders on a bike. The sharp corners and steep bridges of the Jordaan make it a somewhat treacherous endeavour. However, I'm not sure when the owner last attempted it; the back tyres look rather flat to me.

Bicycle No. 15: Monday February 26, 2007

OK. It's not a particularly interesting bike. But it IS where we will be keeping the bikes we buy when we return to the UK. One of the attractions of our new rented home is that it has a side gate, giving easy access for our bikes. Hurrah! Mind you, there are a few hills in Winchester, so I'm not sure how easy it will be to cycle around. Time for a bike with gears and a lightweight aluminium frame.

Bicycle No. 14: Sunday February 18, 2007

Twins: twice the work, the expense, and probably twice the number of stretchmarks. On the other hand, you get to cycle round with one of these specialist jobbies. It's just as well there aren't any hills in Amsterdam, as these things look heavy. You occasionally see them or the bakfietsen stuck at the bottom of a particularly steep bridge, the poor mother desperately trying to gain enough power to get up and over -- while the children are screaming in the front, oozing jam, and beating each other up. A recent newspaper article claimed that Dutch children are the happiest in the world, largely because of the child-centered nature of Dutch parenting. And they're probably right. After all, if you saw your mother sweating buckets "driving" you to nursery or to see Zwaarte Piet while you sat back like a little king in your carriage, wouldn't you feel loved?

Bicycle No. 13: Thursday February 8, 2007

Unlucky 13: well, unlucky for these two bikes, lying entwined on the plaza outside Amsterdam's WTC today. Their snowy embrace looks so ... intimate; I almost felt embarrassed at taking a picture. However, a Dutch woman was also amused by their display and took her camera out, too. I wonder if she has a blog called "Twee-en-vijftig fietsen"?