Biking

On Saturday I decided to do as the Dutch do and explore Amsterdam on a bike. I rented this beach cruiser and set off exploring. Cycling is definitely the best way to get around Amsterdam. There are dedicated bike lanes and traffic signals specifically for bikes. Cars have to yield to bikes everywhere. Bikes are exempted from several traffic laws that pertain to cars like going the wrong way down one way streets. In the morning I cruised around the city for a while. I got some food at an outdoor market near the main train station. I was planning on going to the Anne Frank house and the Rijksmuseum, but the lines were both really long so I just headed South out into the countryside around Amsterdam. The Netherlands are great for riding bikes because everything is flat. One thing that was tough was reading the Dutch road signs. There were quite a few signs that had a picture of a bicycle with a dutch word underneath. I had no idea what they meant. I eventually figured out that a do not enter sign with a bike on with uitzondering underneath it means: do not enter, bicycles excepted (this was just confirmed with the internet)