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A One Week Bike Trip in Holland

Day 2 - Sightseeing in Amsterdam

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Long lines outside the museum

Our first stop that morning was the Van Gogh Museum, a short walk from the hostel. By the time the doors opened, a very long line of people waiting to buy tickets had formed (the ticket office opened the same time the doors to the museum opened) so it was good to have bought tickets in advance. Matt and I were the first ones into the museum, and it was neat to have the whole place to ourselves, if only for a few minutes. We spent almost two hours there, and when we left, there was still a long line of people outside.

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Do I really want to do this?

Our next stop was to get our bikes at Macbikes. We took the tram to the vicinity, and after a little wandering did manage to locate the shop. We picked out our "cruisers" which were the 28" wheel, hybrid-type bike (upright handlebars) with built-in locks and rear rack. They even had 21 speeds (we might have used 3 or four of the available gears in our entire trip.) The people there were very friendly, and adjusted and checked both bikes very carefully. They had to instruct us in use of the bike locks, the likes of which I have not seen here in the US. The locks consist of a cable that can be used to secure the bike to some stationary object, and a "C-clamp" device that clamps between the spokes on the rear wheel, all operated by a key - very efficient and effective.

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Matt using the internet terminal

OK, our first test - riding the bikes in Amsterdam traffic. No problem, with the bike lanes most everywhere, but did manage to get lost (I'm used to navigating by the sun - the usually overcast days in Holland curtailed that method.) We secured our bikes at the hostel (they have a shed to lock them in), moved to our new room (a double) and then did some more wandering around Amsterdam. We had lunch at a place we recognized, Pizza Hut (f29.00 for two), then tried to get some detailed 1:100,000 maps at ANWB, but they were closed on Sunday. I did get a 1:150,000 map at the VVV (f7.50). Miscellaneous expenses: Panhandler (f1.00), Postcards and banana (f9.50), stamps (10 at f0.80 each).

Later on Sunday I found a map at a bookstore that had a good scale (1:50,000) and had all the bike paths for the area it covered (not Haarlem and Amsterdam, which I was looking for. More miscellaneous expenses: Fruit (f2.00) and a hamburger at McDonalds (f2.50). That evening I took a walk in the rain while Matt crashed in his bed - really was neat, wandering the quiet, deserted streets in the light evening rain. When I got back to the hostel I checked the weather on the internet (they have a terminal in the lobby which uses a phone card, but it was a pain to use - vertical screen, which meant you had to scroll left-right all the time, and the keyboard was in an awkward position). Looked like it was going to be rainy the next two days (ugh.) I returned to the room where I wrote my notes for the trip. Now 10 PM, so we called it a day.

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