Hairgrove's in Hungary: In the land of bicycles

Amsterdam is considered the true “Venice of the North” and with its winding streets and canals it is easy to see why. You can instantly feel relaxed in a city like Amsterdam because it is a city that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Even the tram workers joke with you, one tram worker even cooed to a baby over the intercom. That’s something you don’t usually hear in a city.

After getting semi-lost going to the hotel, we dropped off our bags and headed out into the city for a full day of exploring. Our first stop was Dam Square--I guess you could say we took the “dam tour,” sorry I couldn’t help myself with the bad pun there.

We found a restaurant in the square and had a great lunch--Ben had an omelet and I had a Dutch club sandwich. After lunch we contemplated riding one of the carnival rides, but we decided it may not be a good idea with a full stomach.

Our view from the lunch table. Not to shabby.

Ben at the cafe.

We spent the afternoon walking and visiting the flower shops lined along the canals. After walking for a while and almost getting run over a few times by bicyclists we decided to be brave and try our own luck at bike riding. I was nervous about biking around the city. Earlier that day when we had checked out of our hotel in Haarlem the receptionist asked what we were going to do in Amsterdam? When we told her we were going to do a bike tour her eyes got big and she said, “Oh my brother has lived there for a few years and he still refuses to ride a bike around the city.”

Flower Power to the extreme.

The Easter bunny came to town.

Do you need some shoes?

So riding a bike around one of the craziest bike cities in the world may not have been one of our brightest ideas. But then again you only live once and like I’ve said before no one will ever think we’re lazy on our holidays.

Gearing up for the bike ride.

Hippie Rob may be here?

Observing the hippies in their natural habitat. :)

We put on our “game faces” and got ready for the ride of our lives. Not to be too melodramatic here, but I was scared for the first hour of the tour (and the tour was 3 hours all together). My internal monologue was something like this:

Peddle, peddle, peddle...

Oh dear God, please don’t let anyone hit me.

Peddle, peddle, peddle...

Crap did I just cut someone off?

Peddle, peddle, peddle...

I hope I don’t get lost.

There were a million more random thoughts that kept entering my brain while I was dodging people, cars and other bikers. That is why I gave Ben the camera to take pictures while we were biking. I joked with Ben that this could be considered a new hobby for him called “Photo-Biking: taking pictures at your own risk.” It was definitely entertaining looking at all the pictures afterwards. Let’s just say Ben has the whole abstract angle thing down.

Besides the bike riding being a bit nerve-racking the tour was very informative and interesting. We were told the history of Amsterdam, how the buildings have survived, and where the hippies past and present still hang out. It was interesting to learn how the hippies of the 60’s have now become “the man,” and are now more mainstream than you would think. And even the notorious red light district and the (special) coffee shops are decreasing little by little every year.

This is another hippie hang out. It is considered a better location
because it is closer to the stores for a possible beer run.

Our tour guide explaining the history of the bridge and buildings.

Rembrandt's house and now museum.

The streets were crowded with a lot of bikes and people.

Ben considered this his most "artist" shot of the ride.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of riding my bike and feeling semi-confident my bike chain came off. I rang my bell for help and our tour guide came back to fix it. I felt bad that I had broken my bike, but at least we weren’t on a crowded street when it happened. My bike was quickly fixed and I was back to riding in just a few minutes. Luckily the rest of the journey was blissfully uneventful.

Once the tour was over we headed to dinner to reward ourselves for making it through the nutty streets of Amsterdam. In fact we had enjoyed the whole tour so much we decided to do the countryside bike tour for the next day.