As it was my first visit I had read and researched the city so we knew where to go and what to expect but seriously, there is nothing that can prepare you for Amsterdam.
From the moment you come out from inside Amsterdam Centraal Station you are hit, hit with the sight of what appears to be a sea of cycles.
There are literally cycles everywhere… Everywhere!
If there is a rail of some description it will have a bike locked to it or if there is an empty patch of cobbled road it wont be very long until there will be a cyclist on it.
On canal streets you seldom see people driving cars, you are more likely to see a family of three on one bike than inside a car, it was lovely.
Unfortunately for me during my whole trip I only saw maybe 5 racing bikes ( apart from inside bike shops like RIH or Stevens ), they are all ‘sit up and beg’ town bikes, big ones, small ones, black ones, pink ones, all used everyday and always, always for utility purposes and never an extension of ones ego.
It is said that Amsterdam holds 750,000 people and 1,000,000 bicycles, I can now believe it.
It took a while for me to get down to 15 shots I was happy with for Spinwell, so as not to get too close to my file space quota but if you are hungry for more Amsterdam goodness…
Peep the full Flickr set here.
March 4, 2009 at 8:35 pm |
You’re right man, before you go you already know there’s gonna be loads of bikes there, but that doesn;t stop it from being an overwhelming surprise. I just couldn’t get my head around it, it was so beautiful. When I got back to brum I became really depressed about all them cars everywhere. What coffee shops did you go to, where did ya stay, did ya go to any museums? Man i’m so excited about going there again!!!!
March 4, 2009 at 8:36 pm |
You know what I love? the traffic lights with the digital countdown timer. Makes the wait so much more bearable when you know exactly when the lights are gonna turn green.
March 5, 2009 at 12:28 pm |
As it was my first visit I had read and researched the city so we knew where to go and what to expect but seriously, there is nothing that can prepare you for Birmingham.
From the moment you come out from inside Birmingham New Street Station you are hit, hit with the sight of what appears to be a sea of cars.
There are literally cars everywhere… Everywhere!
If there is a rail of some description it will have a car parked next to it or if there is an empty patch of road it wont be very long until there will be a car on it.
On canal streets you seldom see people riding bikes, you are more likely to see a family inside a car than on bikes, it was lovely.
March 5, 2009 at 12:39 pm |
I like it. Although I wouldnt have said that Birmingham is ‘Lovely’ at all.