Biking in Amsterdam

First things first, my track record with bicycles is not the best. The last memory I have is slightly blurred due to a traumatic experience, but I can paint you a quick picture: awkward 4th grade allison + bring your bike to school day + hand-me-down rusty bike + mailbox...do the math. Let's just say that the bicycle and I had been on an indefinite break from one another...until Amsterdam. My travel partner-in-crime, Amanda, and I had heard from people we'd met that if we were to ride a bike anywhere, it should be in Amsterdam-the unofficial bike capital. Seeing as though the city is complete with bike lanes and a higher ratio of bikes to cars we found it to be the safest place to do it!

The first 15 minutes of our biking adventure were some of the most entertaining; where we found that apparently we are quite slow riders (we were passed by almost every single cyclist in Amsterdam, scratch that, every cyclist in Holland!), both Amanda & I have quite awful balance (we both fell over when another biker got a little too close to us) and stopping wasn't our forte....at all.

After our initial introduction back into the biking world, we were naturals! We made our way to every nook and cranny of Amsterdam; riding along the famed canals and taking a break from city riding for a relaxing bike stroll in the park.

During our ride we even discovered this empty green patch of land complete with a lake, angry ducks and gorgeous houseboats.

I never thought I would say this, but I was actually quite sad to say goodbye to my bike. Maybe a bike for Boston is in my future?! I will have to work on my hand-eye coordination a bit more :)