Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Dutch Bicycles!


Today we finally purchased Dutch bicycles for the girls and me. I know we have still not even been here two weeks, but a bicycle is a requirement around here!! The girls will use them to go to school everyday and I will use it to go to the grocery, baker, and produce market. In fact, tomorrow I have to take a trip to the town hall to turn in a few documents related to our residency in the Netherlands and the best way for me to go is by bicycle. It is only 1.5 km away. Yes...I've started only using the metric system! Before I mostly just used it in my science classroom and when at a meters swimming pool : ).

Dave will get one soon too. We had looked at several shops, looked at and talked about getting used ones, but in the end, we decided to get new ones from a local shop. The bikes are nice, we know where to go for maintenance, etc. The bike shop helps you get insurance too. We use two bike locks at all times on our bike and one needs to be a heavy chain. We are told that it is common for bikes to be stolen here so insurance is definitely needed. Hopefully we will be able to sell them to another expat family when we move back to the US.

So today, the girls and I took a tram to one bike shop, didn't like their selection and then took the tram and a bus to another shop called BILK. It was our second time there. Those trips all went smoothly. We purchased our bikes, locks and the bags for the back of the bike (absolutely essential for me!). The girls wanted them too, but now many kids use a big plastic basket on the front of theirs instead so we'll see if the girls change their mind in time. We then started on our way to ride our bikes home! The bikes all have petal brakes instead of hand brakes. That took a little getting used to for me. The main issues is when you stop at a light and get back on the bike again. You can't just spin the petals backward to position them where you want. I'll admit all three of us had a few awkward starts at different parts of our trip...I'm sure we would have been hilarious to watch!

Sometimes the bike paths are part of the street, and sometimes they go off on their own. We were on one that was nice, but didn't follow a street and we had some difficulty figuring out where we were. We had written down directions to get home, but definitely took the long way home : ). Turned a 5 km trip into a 10 km trip and during it had to break down and ask someone for help with directions. Luckily the older gentleman was very nice.

Even though we got a little (or a lot) lost, we stopped at the grocery on the way home and successfully brought home our first cargo using our bikes!! Overall the day was a success...although I will admit that my legs are a little bit tired tonight!!

PS. Although there are not old, traditional windmills "everywhere you look" in Holland, we have seen several since we have been here. There is one in Amstelveen. I took a picture of it today.



4 comments:

  1. Holy metric system, batman! ...after reading about the biking everywhere, now I really understand why Americans are pegged as fat and lazy with our big cars and drive-thru food :)

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  2. Nice bikes hope you are having fun and making lots of friends
    -Keeley

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  3. Netherlands...known for the biking...u guys are jumping right in!!! Go Bravely into that new day:)!

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  4. Amazing how people CAN live without a car, huh?!? When you get home you will struggle witj driving everywhere again!!! It is so healthy to walk or bike!!! Good for you guys!!!

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