Most Dutchmen have two bicycles, one for work, school or shopping. Another one for the weekend, exercise, sport. There are more bicycles in The Netherlands than people. Here, a bicycle is not a poor man’s transport, as is the case everywhere else in the world.. Like many people in Amsterdam I do everything on my bike, I have never owned a car in my life.
Foreigners do not realize how normal cycling is in the live of every Dutchman, rich or poor. This is illustrated by the hilarious web pages by Brian from San Francisco. In a 73-minute period in September 2006 he took 82 pictures of bicycles at one corner of Nieuw Markt (a nice open square in Amsterdam). Sitting there he noticed how remarkably different the whole Amsterdam bicycle scene was from his home, the San Francisco area, California, USA. His pictures are great, his comments are funny and the reactions give lots of explanations and other pictures. The set from Reka on Picasa has lots of bicycles and many other interesting scenes from Amsterdam from June 2009.
Thanks. I enjoyed Brian’s 82 photos – makes me want to do a similar project. I do think Dutch people express a lot of their personalities through their choice of bikes. I’m an expat Aussie living in Amsterdam – owner of 3 bikes – I haven’t settled on a personality yet, I’m doing my best and trying to fit in with the locals!
Cheers, en groetjes!
Richard
http://richardtulloch.wordpress.com