Le Tour

Bicycle is a very important mode of transportation in Amsterdam. Its so important they have their own lanes and traffic light. Why not, you don't need to feed gas and the parking is free and you don't get a speeding ticket if you bike faster. HO HO HO...

After the tiring Tulip Garden walk, everyone decided they had enough of walking and since weather is holding, we have decided to try something with more local flavor. Our hostel Shelter City recommended Star Bikers. E6 per day ( 7.00am to 7.00pm).

Now this is really not what we had in mind when we thought of a bicycle garage. This look like a post office or something. This building is actually behind the railway station.

How long do you think it takes to rent a bike and start your adventure? 1/2 hour? It took us close to 2 hours before we start our bike tour. Their bicycles are manufacture differently from ours. They brake by back padelling and so we end up spending 1 hour practicing in front of garage while by passers laugh at us. We even bought a map ( E3). The cheapest map that we can find is in the tourist office in the railway station selling at E2. You can't get cheaper than that!

Anyhow, the first time we ride our bikes on the road, we almost cause a major pileup! We forgot the roads here are different. Right up and left down. Yes it applies to bicycles too. After being curse by about 2o to 30 people we get the knack of it. Thank God the signs are still the same.

Touring around the city on bikes is really not as easy as it seems. We had to stop like a hundred times to get our bearing, dodge trams, taxis, busses, cars, motorcycles, pedestrians and bloody tourists. Lucky the weather is good and the sun is bright. But don't be fool, its 10 degree celcius out there not to mention the wind is high and when you are zooming around on your bike.. you get my point.

However I actually think the weather is just nice. I wanted to shed off my coat but Cousin Rain won't let me. Know why? Cause I am having fever. Hahaha, you wouldn't have guess it! Anyway D complained the loudest of the cold weather. We didn't really listen to her woes until we turn around on our bikes and saw....

Of course then we have to force her to pose and after posing force her to remove it. Let you guess why we did so...

Amsterdam is actually shape like a spider web with 5 main canals around it. So you bike and you cross a canal

After you cross this canal bridge, after 1 km you found another bridge that looks exactly like the one you just ride over. You consult your map to make sure you are still on the right way.

Their canals are huge and suprisingly clean considering what goes in it :).

Big canals such as the one we keep riding are high and have draw bridges for big boats to pass through. Nevertheless after riding over countless of bridges we swerve into one of the smaller roads/sub canals. Cousin Rain thought of using some shortcut and cutting through.

Smaller canals have cute little holes underneath for boats to pass through. No big ships though. Here you can see a more domestic usage of the canals. Notice there is no seperator or divider on the edge of the road. I bet 9 out of 10 Malaysian will reverse right into the canal. I have the utmost respect for Amsterdam drivers.

After going down the shortcut we realize we are LOST!!! While cousin Rain fish out the map from her backside...pocket, I look around and saw this house! Its senget! I got a shock when the owner came out holding a bag of rubbish and saw me snapping at his house. Walau eh... luckily the owner quite sporting. He gave us a big wave and point at his house thumbs up, no doubt very *kembang* (proud) we took photo of his house.

While Cousin Rain sorted out the shortcut thingy.. I spoted another house which is senget. This one more dangerous cause of the angle of the slope. Dare you stay in this house?

Eventually we manage to ride out of the small canals and back onto the main canals. And lucky to stumble on the oldest drawbridge in Amsterdam. Kwel eh...

Despite getting lost we are still on the right track!

Most of their older buildings layouts are like this. Narror but many storeys. Want to know how they shift their furniture?
Look closer and you will see these hooks on the top of the house. They use the pulley and haul furniture in via the window! Shocking eh...

Bigger ones look like this. These are the more modern houses.

The owner of the middle house must a real nature lover. The house is full of vegetation. The purple climbing plant is very popular and can be found in quite a lot of houses!

Some buildings are also quite unremarkable. Cousin Rain ask to take this one cause its the ugliest that we saw.

Its buildings like this that really makes buildings like the one on top look ugly. I am sure the building above looks right at home in Malaysia.

After a gruelling ride around Amsterdam, we decided to take a rest at Vondelpark ( A bikers park). Naturally when you were resting you realize you are darn hungry. Luckily there is a hotdog stall nearby. Hotdogs are sold differently in Amsterdam. The vendor put a hotdog on a bun and you get to dress it yourself. Being the typical Malaysian, you tried to pile your hotdog with everything, don't care you eat it or not, kinda like how to pile salad on a Pizza Hut salad bowl. Its bliss to actually sit on something that fits your butt, cheefully eating hotdog and ice - cream.

Notice ice cream is not in the picture. Cousin Rain ate it before I manage to snap a picture...

After the short rest its another mad rush back to the Garage to hand in the bikes before we are charged for a second day. Overall we manage to cover the heart of Amsterdam in a haphazard way. See closely for higlighted in yellow. Thats the route we took. Crazy one we all.... ha ha ha ha