The partial quote in the title is part of a statement by a world famous theoretical physicist.   The entire quote is:

Life is like riding a bicycle, 

To keep your balance, you have to keep moving.

The author?  Albert Einstein.  He is in great company for it appears almost every Dutch person, from toddler to senior+ person  rides a bicycle, and their riding is not a stroll in the park.  One of the first things we were told upon arrival in Amsterdam was to “Watch out for the bicycles”!!!  Seriously.  They zoom by like individual tornadoes from every which direction.  This warning was repeated in every town we visited, but for now, let’s focus on Amsterdam.

The signs of the importance of bicycles were everywhere – the above photo of a “bicycle stand”  for example.  Here are a few more:

 

The sign roughly translates to “alone in the rack.”  Clearly this is not the case on the streets.  In addition, periodically scuba divers go into the surrounding canals to retrieve many, many bicycles.  Racing gone awry?  Drinking while bicycling?  Losers at playing “chicken”?  Failure to stop in time?  Slippery when wet?  We will never know.

Nevertheless, bicycling and The Netherlands are intertwined.  Why?  There are many reasons.  In Amsterdam, it is clearly the best method of transportation – the narrowness of the streets as well as the aforementioned  canals do not lend themselves to cars other than the toy looking tiny ones like this:

They actually look like a front of a car cut off from the rest of the vehicle. Despite its small size these microcars require a citywide two-year parking permit costing 450 pounds.  Some of the very rich have managed to keep larger status cars – showing that Amsterdam suffers from the same class inequities as the rest of the world, yet there is still much to be admired – to be explored in  future posts.

There is another obvious benefit to riding a bicycle – health and fitness.  I should mention that it appears,  in general the Dutch are extremely tall, blonde, fit and very good looking. Part of this is supported by scientific research.  Today, the AVERAGE height of the adult Dutch men is  6’1” and  5’7” for adult Dutch women. What’s more surprising is that the Dutch have gone from being among the smallest people in Europe to the largest in the world in the span of a century.  In addition to natural selection and improved living conditions, there is another key ingredient to the Dutch’s height,  Get ready to throw out that kale and kombucha – Dutch food culture is heavily based on meat, bread and potatoes and cheese. It is not unusual for the Dutch to eat bread in the morning and afternoon, and end the day with potatoes, vegetables, meat and more cheese.

Cheese, by the way, is a major business.   For the Dutch, cheese, milk and other dairy products are not only staple foods but national symbols, and major exports for the country. More on this in a future post, but let me share a few selections that came home with me, out of hundreds of gouda varieties:

They are DELICIOUS!!!

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