It's hard for someone who's not been here to get a sense of how many bicycles there are. I thought there were a lot in Oxford, but that's nothing. Here in Holland and more so in Utrecht which is a university town than in Amsterdam, there are bikes everywhere. I mean everywhere. If you like to ride, Holland is the place for you.

There are a huge piles locked up to each other. They are locked to every available piece of metal attached the ground or a wall. Amsterdam probably has the same problem with bikes that San Francisco has with cars. There are more bikes than there are places to park them. Sometimes finding a place to lock down is tricky.

And when I say locked. I mean locked. Every Dutch bike, and these are mostly simple one gear coster brake variety, have a spoke lock in the rear and most people have two additional locks. It seems crazy to me that in a country where everyone has at least one bike that there should be a problem with bike theft, but there is. I can remember Rutger telling me a few years ago that some enterprise thief figured out that you can shatter a Kryptonite U-lock with a Volvo jack which is why you never see them. Only the massive chain variety.

I've been borrowing Rutger's bike. He, understandably is very safety conscious. The front door to his house is like Ft. Knox and there are three locks on the bike, so I really have to want to stop when I am riding because it's an ordeal to secure the bicycle. There's the spoke lock as I mentioned. There's a standard chain and then there is the massive, this bike isn't going anywhere, ring chain. So there is no danger of the bike being stolen. The only danger is accidentally dropping the keys in the canal, which would basically mean the bike will be locked in situ for the rest of time or until the fire brigrade decides to remove it.

Everyone is on bikes. Everyone. Old grandmothers, men in three piece suits, school kids, beautiful women that anywhere else could be models, but here in Holland, they ride bikes. People ding their friends on the rack or the handle bars. Kids ride standing on the back with their hands on their father's shoulders. Dogs ride in the baskets in front, calm as if it was the natural way for a pooch to get around town.

Bike paths are everywhere, in the parks, along the streets. If you like to ride, this is the place for you. The city is essentially flat. The only hills come courtesy of the little canal bridges, so the single gear bikes do the trick.

Beyond the basic bicycles that you see all over, you have your more utilitarian machines, some with little chairs for children, some with buckets or baskets or plaforms in front even. And people are carrying everything. You see people with their shopping bags or with flowers or with a new TV set or just about anything you can imagine.

The coaster brakes take some getting used tp. I had them on my bike as I kid but I've been so imprinted to squeeze the brake with my hand that it likes a Pavlovian response that I can't help, so I've come to some embarrassingly skidding stops and have just managed to avoid several accidents, which surprisingly considering the amount of bikes, the trams and the cars, there are blessedly few of. I did manage one minor scrape. I was stopped, straddling the bike, trying to put on my sweater when the bike slipped out from under me in the middle of a very crowded square and smashed the tail light in the billion bits. Only cost a few euros to replace, so no big deal, but how embarrasing.

Anyway, I'm going to have to make a few videos during rush hour so you can see what I am talking about it. I'll try to remember to do it today.