Going Dutch...

9 August 2017 - 13 August 2017

Once we got to Amsterdam we continued our theme of oh man we really have spent so much time together anybody else please hang out with us... Hayley had been in town for a work conference and we gate crashed her and Ryan's trip after she had finished at her conference. A couple of days later Sarah and Andrew joined us all for the weekend. 

As we no longer had the van we were able to stay right in the middle of the city. It was great being able to wander around the central city in the evenings. But the best way to get around Amsterdam is on bikes! Mark had been looking forward to the opportunity of exploring the city by bike so he would be able to start insufferably blathering on about how great the Amsterdam cycle infrastructure is compared to Auckland's paucity of bike paths every time the topic came up back home.

For the first day or so we were in full on tourist mode and went for a canal cruise around the city one evening. We got to see the city sights from the water and learnt a bit of the history of the area. This was great as we had done zero research about what we might find in Amsterdam. 

Not just drugs and hookers, apparently.

We hired bicycles for a couple of days and with the help of a handy bicycle route map we headed out of the central city to explore the rural surrounds. We all got off to a great start and were happily zooming along the great paths that are all over the city.

Cycling along on top of a dyke. Only a windmill could make this more Dutch.

Unfortunately shortly after this happy photo my front tyre went flat. The guy we rented the bikes from was pretty disinterested, we could bring the bike back for a replacement, but we were right across town from the store. Not to worry - our handy cycle map has plenty of bike repair shops marked on it. With the help of the bike map and google we headed to the bike repair shop. The sign in Dutch was dutifully translated - closed as we are away for summer holidays. Not to worry - we are in Amsterdam where there are so many bikes that there is a handy app for flat tyres - just put in your location and someone arrives to repair the flat tyre for you. Error - you are too far from the central city for us to come and help you. Back to the bike map to try and find another repair shop. It was the fifth shop we tried before we found one that both existed and was open. 

We had to travel a reasonable distance to be able to get the bike to each of these putative bike shops. With limited tools and no bungee cords Mark ended up attaching my bike to the tray on the front of his bike with the two bike locks that we had. This provided a fairly unstable load that swung about as he pedalled. 

[M- also, it was a heavy great steel bike, so I was effectively adding a huge extra mass attached to my forks and centred well out in front of the steering axis, that also had a pretty big moment of inertia. Thanks to just having done my 4th year project on a similar topic, I had a reasonable theoretical, understanding of exactly why this made riding—let alone steering—incredibly difficult and unstable. This was a great comfort to me as I careened wildly back and forth across the road in front of angry Dutchmen,  and repeatedly crashed into bushes and the occasional lamp post. -M]

With my front inner tube replaced we continued merrily on our way for a while. Then - oh no not again - thankfully we had done a big loop around the area the bike repair shop was in so it didn't seem like too much of a mission to get the bike back to the store. I started the task of pushing the bike back towards the store. 

Then a bird shat on me. Fairly extensively.

By this point we figured there was some kind of higher being suggesting we really shouldn't do this bike ride.

Very gracefully pushing the bike through the mall towards the bike repair shop... again

A repair job on the new inner tube and we were away. We decided on a shorter scenic loop which was really great once we were finally able to get going.

All smiles after our day of bike adventures

Sarah and Andrew arrived late on Friday night so we all caught up on Saturday morning and jumped on the train to Utrecht, about a half hour train ride away. We braved the heights and climbed up the Dom tower of Utrecht - only 465 steps to the top. On a clear day you are meant to be able to see back to Amsterdam. 

Friends!

Once we had exhausted Utrecht's delights we headed back to Amsterdam for the evening to sample more of the city's delights. The following day after a traditional Dutch breakfast of massive pancakes we flew to Bergen to meet up with Mark's family for a Gilmour family hiking trip in Norway.