Land of a Million Bikes

Netherlands is known for tulips, windmills, cheese, art, wooden shoes and bikes. Yes, bikes.  Amsterdam alone has one million bikes for its eight hundred thousand residents.  The central train station has parking spaces for nearly 10,000 bikes. Marauding bikers, rule the road along omnipresent bike lanes.  Pedestrians beware!

The bikes are gearless, and sometimes, charmless.  The lowlands are just that, totally flat.  Bike theft, and lost bikes discourage upscale intra city rides.  Thousands of bikes are pulled out of the canals each year.

I have culled my pictures from our recent Holland trip to highlight bike pictures.  I have also included pictures taken at the Nijmegen Velorama (bike museum).  Some of you may spot the one Belgian picture, taken in Ghent.

This post is inspired by my sister, Marilyn, an avid cyclist.