The real dope on cycling in Amsterdam
CAR-FREE: You can pedal your way to all the top tourist spots in this friendly city
Amsterdam is unique in many ways. With over 800,000 registered bicycles, and likely almost as many unregistered, it may be the most bike-friendly city in the world.
There are museums and tourist attractions galore, and you can access them all by bike. The scenery is fantastic, with endless canals and boats and ancient architecture.
The Dutch must be the most tolerant people on the planet. They allow porno shops to operate publicly in downtown district that actually has red lights, and the surprised visitor will observe other interesting shops as he or she pedals around the car-free streets. In this permissive atmosphere, there are many surprises for the tourist to enjoy.
The place to start your perambulations of the city is at MacBike, a bike rental shop conveniently located in Grand Central Station right in the heart of town next to the Grand Canal.
You can rent a bike by the hour or day or for several days. The threeday package will give you time to see the essential sites, like the city’s historic museums. The Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank
House and the Stedelijk Museum are the most popular choices, but there are many others. All told, there are over 50 Amsterdam museums, which attract almost two million visitors every year.
I tried several times to enter the Anne Frank House, but there was always a huge lineup at any hour of the day. The Rijksmuseum and Van
GoghMuseum are always packed as well. But no despair.
The main attraction for me was observing the lives of the locals, and the canals intersecting everything, and the charming cafés and local neighbourhoods. Cycling around downtown, I dreamt about what it would be like to live is such a wonderfully scenic city.
Just riding a bike through streets almost devoid of vehicular traffic was wonderful. Everyone drives a one-speed clunker bike, top heavy, clumsy and slow. You won’t find any spandex-clad, 27-speed, competitive racers in Holland. It’s a slower pace, relaxed.
It was late June, an early Dutch summer, warm and sunny, a crystal clear sky shimmering over treecovered streets as my wife and I trundled along, mesmerized by the charm, keeping a sharp eye out for the millions of other cyclists and — more important — looking for a café and a place to lock our bikes.
In a city of a million cyclists, the biggest problem is finding a place to lock your bike. (The rental company was very clear that bikes were often stolen, and you would be charged handsomely for a replacement.) Every fence, tree or bike rack in the city appeared to be taken. It must have been a cold spring, too, because every café was packed with people basking in the sunshine. But then I spotted it.
Dutch Flowers Cafe, a restaurant with two chairs facing the sun.
We raced a city block and put our bags down on the two chairs to claim them. But where to lock the bikes? The nearby fence and trees were all taken. I leaned the bikes against the back of the chairs on which we were sitting, and my wife watched them as I strode manfully inside to order two non-fat lattes and maybe a couple of biscuits.
Inside, the café was dim and dull except for the very old classic rock on the sound system. Unlike every other café we’d seen, no one was talking. The patrons sat sullenly, staring at their coffees. The manager standing behind the counter gave me the stink eye. What the heck? I ordered two lattes.
“Can you read?” snarled the manager.
“Sometimes,” I replied cheerfully. “Depends on the language involved and the time of day. Seldom before breakfast and never before my morning coffee. Two lattes please.”
“Read this, then,” he said, pointing to a sign hanging above the coffee grinder. It said: “No purchase of coffee without the purchase of marijuana or hashish.”
My mouth hung open. I am seldom caught short of words, but this was a first. It was illegal to buy coffee unless I bought some dope first? Amazing!