It’s summer in Melbourne, so I have a fitting message for my brother over at Melbournize, who’s preparing to enter Mikael’s Cycle Chic Contest (courtesy of Adrienne).
He’s about to embark on a ride with a date and his camera (I assume in that order ;-p), primarily aiming to tickle your cycle chic senses. He better [...]
A Shout Out To Melbournize
24/7/365
Anytime, any place, anywhere. That’s when and where you’ll see people on bikes in ‘this part of the world’.
Taking the nice downtown route to go home.
Last chat between friends before going separate ways.
Left: Going home, patiently. Right: People on bikes being one while waiting for the bridge to come down.
Pulling up.
All In The Family
My older brother Michel lives in Melbourne, Australia. When he’s not working, he spends most of his time training for yet another mind boggling race, such as the Iron Man…yes, he’s a triathlete. Or he rides his off road motorbike around another continent. What I didn’t know when I started Amsterdamize this summer is that [...]
Amsterdam Through Strangers’ Eyes, Part 4
Glenn Billingham, a UK expatriate living in Amsterdam, eloquently and entertainingly writes:
Powered By Our Own Shapely Thighs
The morning gathering took place again.
A Dutch rush-hour is a little different to the other global scenes of 9am and 5pm chaos. New Yorkers hustle and bustle accompanied by a take-out coffee amidst a sea of yellow cabs. City [...]
Bring Your Umbrella…Or Not
Today, the ‘Research Trailer Park’ blog posted an article from ‘The State’ newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina:
Bicycle Friendly press conference canceled
A press conference to talk about the city of Columbia’s new designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community has been canceled because of forecasted bad weather this afternoon.
The press conference has been rescheduled for 3 p.m. [...]
CPH Cycle Chic Peek
Soon after arrival in rainy Copenhagen, lunch and coffee, my generous cycle host Mikael and I set off on a tour around town.
Feeling right at home on the many bike lanes, albeit characteristically blue ones, we buzzed around each other like bees in a flower bed. Cameras at gun point, efficiently weaving through all the [...]
AMS IN CPH [Update]
It’s a beautiful Saturday morning, one cycle day Sunday afternoon, already 3 days of Copenhagen in the bag, time to write up some of what happened to yours truly.
Mikael picked me up at Central Station, after a very interesting and eventful train ride through La Nuit L’Europe du Nord. I dropped off all that is [...]
AMS To CPH: Beware
Copenhagen beware, Amsterdamize is coming. So is Mr Freight. Long overdue, as I was supposed to go this summer, but I had a scheduling conflict. I’ll be cruising around Copenhagen from next Friday until Monday (Nov 7-10).
That self-declared, stylish and neatly infrastructured ‘Bicycle Capital Of the World‘ should be able to satisfy my basic needs:
Welcome [...]
Bike To/From Work And In Between
For all the talk about infrastructure, subjective safety, policies, promotion, education, etc etc, you’d almost forget that cycling to and from work is just plain fun. Even a drizzling foggy day is welcome when you step out and hop on to go to the office. Or a client in my case.
It really puts a [...]
Put Your Hat On
Days and nights are getting crispy, leafs are falling and people one bikes in Amsterdam are transforming similarly.
This afternoon I took advantage of a nice enough day and sat down for lunch outside on the curb of Runstraat, smack in the middle of the famous Nine Little Streets. Slowly digesting my Club Chicken sandwich [...]
Museum Night 2008 - Bikes Included
Last night Amsterdam opened a few more doors than usual, as the annual Museum Night kicked off. That doesn’t need a whole lot of explaining.
Faithful readers like yourself also don’t have to crunch numbers on what transpires when Amsterdammers need to be on the move in their city. Right. I’ll just keep this post as [...]
(L)Eaves Dropping [Update]
Andrew latest post over at Isocrates reminds me I really need to get Amsterdamize ‘biz’ cards printed. So many times I enjoy encounters which, in the end, has me spelling out the name of this blog or writing it down on a piece of paper. It’s ridiculous. And not just because my handwriting is pretty [...]
100% Friendly
One way to ‘measure’ a city or country’s bicycle-friendliness is to observe children on bicycles in their natural habitat…which is everywhere. Around the block, going to school, playgrounds and most importantly the roads they share with everybody else to get to their destination. Or at least, it should be everywhere. Is it safe, or is [...]
Final Touches
This is the last post about Mr Freight, for now. You’ll just have to forgive me my childish enthusiasm for my new sturdy steed.
First I had to go to Workcycles shop in the east of town to have the rear rack removed and the smaller front rack put in place, then back downtown to the [...]
Down & Out…And Moving On
So Spartacus got vandalized last night. I had left it parked outside a friend’s house this weekend, in a fine, upscale neighborhood (no irony). My CSI-like scan of the scene this morning quickly established that some perp had stepped into the crate (dirty shoe marks) at the front of the bike and started doing his [...]
Egos & Leverage
It was that time. Budapest and a sh*tload of work got in between, all great excuses, but today it had to be done. I had to take a ‘professional’ picture of myself…
Here’s why. Some time ago I talked about my contribution (Chapter 14: ‘The Future Is Already Here‘) to the upcoming Bike To Work book [...]
Amsterdamize In Budapest Report
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to rent a bike and vlog a Bicycle TV episode, as other things got in the way, activities for which I had traveled there in the first place. This involved long days (and nights) on the town, geeking out and just socializing with friends I mostly talk to through the [...]
Courier This
Amsterdam is a very dense city, you know that by now. Narrow streets, lots and different modes of traffic and its configuration is a delicate mix of urban and commercial life, with quite a large chunk of leisure purposes.
A highly developed network of public transportation in the form of trams and buses is therefor a [...]
ABCoustic Budapest
(As posted on VlogEurope)
Saturday was ‘Vlog Your ABC’ day, so to say. Five second snippets, in one way or another connecting letters that mattered to each person’s take on it. In teams of 3 we ventured into town, Raymond (The Boy King) hooked me up with Sigrid and Joel.
I thought I knew what I was [...]
Because
Today I mentally closed the Summer of 2008 chapter. It has certainly been interesting. A new blog, a new bike, new friends, new connections, park rides and picnics, errands, going out, bike interviews, weekend in Paris, Cycle Chic 24/7, trips, parties, just stepping out, and everything else that involves my trusted 2 wheeled friend.
Because a [...]
6:30 - 7:30 P.M.
Back on the bike. Thursday evenings have longer shop hours. Not in a hurry. Waiting for bridge/bike lane to come down. Lovely Cycle Chic on the phone. Pedal alongside the canals. Westerkerk basks in the sun. Short cuts to avoid most traffic. Oozing into city center. Lock bike. In, purchase, out. Unlock bike. Stop at [...]
Snippet
When you are like me, sitting on the couch all day…in other words, The Office, you frequently remind yourself it’s always healthy to find an excuse to go outside. In my particular case, that scenario always involves hopping on my bike.
I figured I could run an errand. Step one is making one up. Step two [...]
Multi-Task
Like thousands and thousand of others on the streets/bike lanes of Amsterdam, she talked on her cell phone from start to finish, in between stopping at intersections.
You know, those moments when you can really concentrate on important stuff.
Bridging The Gaps
We all (at least you and I) like to see more people moving around on bicycles. All around the world the best invention on wheels of the century is experiencing an unprecedented come-back. ‘Normal cycling’ is gaining lots of traction, Northern-European bike manufacturers can hardly handle demand from overseas, local dealers are struggling to keep [...]
Amsterdam Through Strangers’ Eyes - Part 3
From the Seattle Public Library blog ‘Shelf Talk‘:
Part 1: “Tour d’Amsterdam: Biking as a Tourist”
“Biking in Amsterdam is an experience that can be enjoyed by even novice cyclists. On almost all streets and roads, cyclists enjoy an exclusive wide path separated from motor vehicle traffic by a strip of ground, a ditch or high curb. [...]
Seize The Bridge
Blabla, the Dutch have it easy, blabla, the country is flat, blabla, no hurricanes, blabla, small place, blabla, bike lanes, blabla, more bikes than people, blabla, bikes rule the road, blabla, etc.
Not entirely true. We, the Dutch, normal people in normal clothes on normal bikes, we have to endure some rough elements during our daily [...]
Blog Feature Announcement
On average, an Amsterdamize post generates a lot of comments (cheers, I love it). But with popularity come management issues, specifically for the readers. Sure, you can subscribe to Amsterdamize and its comments separately through RSS, but I understand not all of you use that (highly recommended, though, for all your digital life).
I’ve just added [...]
Weekend Rinse & Nap/Wrap Up
It was a weekend of finding time for naps in between engagements. That must sound very ’senior’ to you, I know.
The switch from summer to fall certainly has some ramifications for my bio-clock and such. I just need my naps now. Early darkness, rainy days, wind, all that jive, it doesn’t help my physical ‘momentum’ [...]
Cycle Reflex
Some who know me were right. My last post was quite a rant. Still, I meant every word of it, all thought out, but still a rant.
So I stepped out, got on my bike, pedaled to the supermarket and shot these on my way back. I’m ‘calm’ again. See how that works? :-p
Somebody Flipped A Switch
Remember all those nice, sunny pictures of normal people in normal clothes on normal bikes on this website? Especially those from last weekend? Yeah? Keep ‘m close, for reference, ’cause it will be long before you’ll see those again. Well…the sunny part, that is.
Today the fall finally got to wash away any hopes for [...]
