Attentie, Fietsen

On a lark, the day was spent cycling around various bits of Greater Amsterdam. First south to Museumplein and the Oud Zuid, a few rounds around the Vondelpark, then south past Olympiaplein and Buitenveldert to Amstelveen; back through the rambling Amsterdamse Bos, past the quite striking Vrije Universitiet (the big red building down there), through de Pijp, past Sarphatipark, up and down part of the Amstel; following the Nieuwe Keizersgracht to the Plantage, where there was lunch; then further east to the Oosterpark, before heading back west through the islands, Waterlooplein and Centrum to Jordaan; and finally back to the bike rental shop on the Singel.

The scenery got somewhat progresively less interesting the further away from central Amsterdam it was ... although the Amsterdamse Bos was quite refreshing (a bit like Golden Gate Park, but even more like a forest near the heart of the city), and Buitenveldert and Amstelveen would surely have been nice places to live in, quiet and spacious though relatively close to the bustle of Amsterdam. Each neighbourhood did have its distinctive characteristics---neatly spaced-out terrace houses and wide canals near the Vondelpark; more closely-spaced rowhouses (though rather less claustrophobic than many East Asian cities) in de Pijp; more generous villas in the Plantage; narrow canals and similarly-proportioned houses on the eastern islands; the orderly stateliness of the Canal Belt and the more ragged version of it that was the Jordaan---though often not glaringly obvious ones. Reading Geert Mak's Amsterdam, and the half-slow pace of the city bicycle, fast enough not to be tedious but not so rapid as to make the passing scenery a blur, helped highlight and paint the differences in a suitable light.

Amsterdam really is a cyclist's dream: the bike paths go everywhere the roads go, plus many places the roads don't. Many roads are restricted to cars and other road traffic, but not to bicycles (and motorcycles). It was possible to cycle just about anywhere without ever getting off a bike path or bike lane. Sometimes motorcycles, which share the paths and lanes, are an annoyance, but there aren't many of them, and generally they don't present much of a danger. Plus the weather is ideally cool and breezy: you still sweat---it's quite unavoidable---but the sweat dries up very quickly.
There're plenty of bikes around, too. I have yet to see a traffic jam in Amsterdam, even at rush hour; but at any hour of the day, anywhere in the city, if you stop to take a look around, chances are you're spot someone cycling. And Centraal Station doesn't have a multi-storey carpark, but it does have a multi-storey bicycle park---and that's on top of the whole tranche of space given over to bicycle parking in front of the station. Have you seen almost three floors of bicycle racks full of parked bikes? It's quite an imposing sight.

Now that so many Chinese middle class denizens are eagerly abandoning their bicycle for cars, China should cede its title of "bicycle kingdom" to the Netherlands.