I hate people crossing the market with their bike. They are not easy to overtake when you are on a hurry and they are always in front of you when we want to see what's in a stall…

As always a lovely set of Pictures,are those Seagulls they do not look like them. Over here in Dublin in the Fishing Port of Howth People buy Fish to feed the Harbour Seals .When the Seal catches the Fish in its Mouth the Gulls swoop down to Rob it off them ,a lot of the time they are successful .

I like all the Bikes at the Market it is only just getting like that here although People with Children a lot of them are fixated by the Helmet Syndrome for their Children.

The Dutch Bike is starting to become more Prevalent on the Streets of Dublin with a few different makes in the Bike Shops getting sold.

Like Gazelle,BSp, Batavus and now Bear Bikes together with Pashlys and a lot of Old Raleighs from the 1960ties getting done up and Sold. We have a very long way to go to have it like the Netherlands with everything being very Relaxed and Safe but we are slowly getting there, The Infrastructure is still terrible however.

Lehommeauvelo: Herons.

i always feel so serene after reading your posts! – beautiful – can't wait for my amsterdam sojourn in october!!!! – are there stacks of places to hire bikes from? we'll need them for six days!!! yay!!!

Oh Sue, so glad you'll be visiting Amsterdam again soon!

I'd love to hire a bike there that a) doesn't have any silly sign on it b) is an upright, NOT a mountain bike and c) is small enough for a not-very-tall person (not being Dutch). Suppose local bicycle shops might be the best option?

Marc, how are Lauren's Dutch lessons coming? While she awaits her working visa would be a good time to get to work on her language skills.

That's one place we'd love to visit in September – and one of the things we love about Portland as well, a lot of markets. We find we rarely even shop for food at the grocery stores during the spring, summer, and autumn, unless we forgot something or we change meal plans after having gone to the market. We do need a good daily food market somewhere in town though.

In a sense, I suppose you kind of are a local tourist (as any photographer should be, I suppose) :)

That's a great basket! Trina had a very similar one on her Electra before we got rid of them. Unfortunately, the same one won't work on her Raleigh with rod brakes, but I'm hoping to get a front rack mounted that a basket could just sit on :)

lehommemauvelo: The bird on the left is a Black-Headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), the one on the right a Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea). The gulls you see in Dublin are probably Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) or their smaller counterparts Common Gull (Larus canus). I live in Assen where there are two markets a week; these travel in a certain circuit. The fish stalls are almost always attended by a Herring Gull which is astonishing as we are rather far inland. It probably follows the markets; people hardly notice it as it just walks around among the customers – like a chicken.

Fritz. Our Black Headed Gulls stay mainly out on Islands but you get the odd one in the Fishing Ports. Most of the Gulls that come into the Ports and the City of Dublin are the ordinary Grey and White type ,the Large ones and small type. Our Herons stay at the Seaside and on the Rivers in the Cities and Towns but do not visit Markets.

There was one Old Man who lived in Cottages beside the Dodder River in Ringsend Dublin who liked to Feed the Herons with bits of Meat and Fish,this was around Ten Years ago. There was a Bank in Ballsbridge near the Dodder River which had a Pond Stocked with Fish and the Herons soon got Rid of them.

really that bad? I never noticed, and I always park my bike first :)

Thanks, John! Yeah, Branko got it right and Frits…is one thorough gentleman :).

Best thing to do regarding 'h', as I've learned the hard way, is to ignore it as much as possible..:)

Good to hear the bike range is widening. Change has to come from so many different angles, and this is also a small, yet good indicator. You know what I'd do, if I had anything to do with it :)

That's not that far down the road anymore, great! Stacks and stacks and stacks of places to hire from, Sue! I'll send you a list before you leave.

thanks, Branko, I added it to my post

She's right, Sue, and I'll make sure you won't have to suffer from 'shoot me, I'm a tourist'. There are plenty of options to service Sue, I'll help her out :).

Thanks for asking, Lauren has postponed taking the extended course until after she gets her residence permit, meanwhile I've taken it upon myself to teach her a few things here and there :).

you two will love the markets, Dave, there's a particular one on Saturday you can't miss out on and I'll be taking you there :).

Ok, that does it, calling me a tourist! :)

Lo L.O.V.E.S. her basket, she actually said: “Only NOW do I feel like a real Amsterdammer”. Now she tells me…
Get on that basket case, mister :-p

the things that transpire on this bike blog…love it :)

Heh, forget getting together with a native Dutchie, it was the basket that did it :)

John and I like being a bit pedantic, every now and then :-)

See this photo by Thomas Schlijper: http://www.schlijper.nl/archive/2010/04/12.html (8th from top).
Marc will appreciate it, too.
This is a heron which apparently does a regular round of its food suppliers and is not afraid of coming into their houses.

Marc I forgot to say this Man would sit on a Chair outside his House in Stella Gardens Ringsend and Feed the Herons,they were used to him and stay about a Metre away and he would throw them Morsels of Food. I have never seen anybody else doing this.

Are you familiar with “Dubbel Dutch, a practical guide for foreign students of Dutch, with numerous examples and comparisons” by Kevin Cook? Only very occasionally it becomes clear that he lives in Nijmegen ….

That is a great Picture of the Heron going in the Doorway of a House. That House with the Red Brick is on the Style of those Cottages in Ringsend.

…a million thanks!!

That's indeed a great pic by Schlijper, as it is often the case with him, worth following.

Sounds like the world lost quite a character.

I am having so much fun watching you two be happy and reading about Lauren's perspective of being in her new country. Maybe weird because we have never met, but I applaud anyone who is happy and full of an adventurous spirit to live life as you two are. And I know if you are both blogging less, it is because you are living life. I wish you the best. And I told Lauren, I LOVE that basket!

Are you referring to the organic market at Noordermarkt? Excellent bread (sometimes hard to fine by my spoilt Frenchie palate in the Netherlands), flavourful fruit and veg, great cheeses and a lively, old-school-hippie gone back to the earth atmosphere. Great photo ops there.

You do also have to take her to the very multicultural Dappermarkt in the east end as well.

There are a lot of useful Dutch expressions in that little bicycle rap you posted a while back. I've listened to it over and over to help in my hearing Dutch sounds, which are very subtle – sometimes utterly distinct (the Sch in “Schipol” for example), sometimes in between English and German, sometimes just very soft and hard for non-Dutch to catch.

I do have to take a Dutch course though. Fate would have it that I met a German fellow while in your fair city, so improving my German (which I already could speak, write and especially read to some extent) became a priority. But now I have friends working in Amsterdam who are Flemish, so of course for political-historical reasons they are much more insistent on people learning Dutch!

Hey, I've been to Albert Cuyp too, this is a nice place!
The opening:
http://drooderfiets.tumblr.com/post/451859955/a...
The closing:
http://drooderfiets.tumblr.com/post/287208953/a...

wich one do you prefer? ;-)

Frits, I've seen the herons going down on the left overs from the fish stalls, this is really a nice show, they are plenty of them. Marc, you should really come back one day at 17-18ish, I'm sure you'll make great photos.

jeez, even more homesick after seeing this site.

[...] turned into Albert Cuypstraat (which during the day has a buzzing market) and parked right outside Turkish restaurant [...]