Do you hear that ringing?

If you're in Amsterdam you better hope you hear the ringing, because if not, there's a good chance that a bike may run right over you. Bikes rule the road here, hands down, no questions asked. They'll even yell at you if you don't respond to the bell. I sometimes forget that I need to snap out of my Swiss world when I come to other European counties- pedestrians don't rule here.

It's estimated that there are over 1.2 million bikes in Amsterdam, and with a population of a little over 800,000, that means that each person here has more than one bike. Apparently there's also a significant bike theft problem. It is supposedly perpetuated because the Dutch want to buy cheap bikes, since there's a likelihood of them being stolen, meaning that the demand for older, cheaper bikes is met by reselling the stolen bikes. It seems to be a vicious cycle.

Another funny thing we learned about bikes in Amsterdam is not to leave them unlocked or locked to something that is not bolted to the ground. We've heard that apparently drunk Dutchmen think it's really funny to stumble out of bars after a long night of drinking and chunk bikes into the canals. I think this is pretty funny too, but mostly because it just seems so random. We also learned that each year approximately 20,000 bikes are pulled out of the canals and eventually shipped off to China for scrap metal.

Bikes being pulled out of the canals

Kudos to Amsterdam for being so bike friendly (a serious under statement). BK and I did a bike tour yesterday and it definitely made me want to get BK's bike tuned up and finally go buy a cruiser for myself. We'll be cruising around Basel in no time!

P.S.: I wrote this to post on Sunday, but due to technical difficulties with BK's computer and the iPad, I was not able to post it. I'm back on my daily posting schedule now that we're back home.