The green outskirts or the city center, it doesn’t matter, really. Just unwind on and off that bike, be it for 5 minutes or 5 hours, ’tis all good.

See it as a shoddy piece of anthropology, sociology, what have you. People on the move at some point between 6 and 9 pm. For all imaginable purposes. Observe and guess. Then guess again. Some are less obvious than others. But hey, that’s the fun of it. For me at least. Filtering out the details of the extraordinary ordinary that cycling in the city represents.

Leading questions:
- Is cycling gender-specific?
- Is cycling age-specific?
- Is cycling income-specific?
- Is cycling difficult?
- Does cycling require special gear?
- Is cycling healthy?
- Does cycling make cities more livable?
- Is cycling easy on the eyes?
- Etc… (*tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek*)

Specimen #1

Specimen #2

Specimen #3 & #4

Specimen #5

Specimen #6

Specimen #7 & #8

Specimen #9

Specimen #10

Nothing but time. Who’s in a rush. It’s summer and it’s the weekend. Many are on vacation, but who needs one when you live in Amsterdam, it’s zen on two wheels, all the way. Merely have a seat on a(ny) terrace, have a beer and observe…

This summer has been hot so far, so cycling goes down just a notch, we don’t like to break a sweat, like with our daily A-to-B-isms. Good for me, gives me even more time to frame my captures.

You go and head out for one of the city’s beaches, for instance.

En route, it’s very likely you spot a certain blog post’s subject :).

This is just one of many ways to move your bikes.

Easy going at the lights.

Back in the city, cycling forms a welcome cooling off.

For some cooler than others.

Carry on.

Summer discounts and such.

Three on two equals six.

Grocery shopping togetherness.

And those days seem to go on and on, and on, and on…

Still catching up, I might as well be quick and wrap up these last two months. Were they inconsequential? On the contrary, actually the very reason for me running behind. Anyways, let’s do this rundown of May & June.

Lauren arrived in Amsterdam (to stay) and from day 1 she was cruising around, step by step, landmark by landmark, getting to know her new habitat & enjoying her first weekend with visiting friends, who also quickly adopted our cycle ways.

Spring was in full force, making a big difference, as to be expected.

Which enables great lazy days on a patch of grass in the park…occasionally opening your eyes, grabbing the camera.

May does what it pleases, as any Dutchman will tell ya…so cold spells abound

And you know, any bright day is there to seize…

Somebody tells you “That’s a nice gene pool you got there”, which lingers…and then pops up in the first week of June.

Miscellaneous shots in the mix…

Wondering whether Dutch bike ‘culture’ should be put on the Unesco World Heritage list…

Last but not least: ‘A Tale Of Fixies & Cycle Chicas‘…

Not entirely complete, but I think this pretty much makes up for lost time. How’s your summer ridin’ going so far?

On the threshold of summer & inspired by my own personal travels on the road to love, I give you the very best of my ‘Love Is…Bike’ photo series.

>

As for us, correlation really does imply causation…:)

Alert. Old post draft coming to life. Hiya, good people, how have you been. Thank you, I’ve been good, too. Lots has happened since the last Amsterdamize entry, but we’ll cover that, one post at a time.

First: just before I took off for Florida & NOLA earlier this month, the Giro d’Italia had taken over the city. Lots of anticipation, promotions, fun & games, and of course the mandatory cutting-the-city-in-half-and-walling-it-off. ‘Cutting it in half’ actually applied to the streets as well, one half for the lycra-boys & girls, the other available to visitors and Amsterdammers, going about their way.

A curious peek

‘Niet normaal’ | ‘Not normal’

I think it’s safe to say the people of Amsterdam weren’t more (or less) thrilled about the Giro than any other event hitting the city (and there are many). They’d stop and glance here and there, sure. But I observed many who more interested in the time the fences would open than in anything else.

Level of lycra sky-rocketed that day, obviously

You can call it blasé and I will say that Amsterdam is spoiled in that regard. Of course an event like this is good for the city, promotion, tourism, etc. You’d think that this being a bicycle event in the Netherlands, the Dutch would be lining up to see it. Nope. Along the route I think there was an average of two rows of spectators. Saying it was more would be pushing it.

In any case, the bike parade (by locals) was the highlight of the Prologue. Yeah, well, what can I say, I’m an Amsterdammer.

The real reason I actually captured this parade, is that I wanted to cross this street to attend the Bicycle Film Festival in Tuschinski, but couldn’t. The little time I had left when I got there was fun enough, seeing some familiar faces, aka fellow Dutch bike lovers.

But alas, I had a dinner party to go to. Parking my bike there, I was greeted by yet another balloon, this one tied to a scooter. Oh, if only…

In early February of this year Antoine Sachs of ARTE TV from Paris arrived in Amsterdam on his tour around this country to document Dutch bicycle culture, infrastructure and more. He was particularly interested to talk to me about the ‘trouble in bicycle paradise’, being bike theft and parking problems. The first is huge, but on the decline, the latter is ever persistent with the rising cycle rates.

I was happy to host Antoine, show him around and highlight a few aspects on camera. This weekend he e-mailed me to tell me his video series about cycling in the Netherlands was finished and online on his blog ‘Chronicles Of My Carbon-Free Life‘.

I hope your French is good, because, as is still customary in France, it’s all dubbed. No big hurdle, as the footage will tell a clear enough story. Enjoy.

On Thursday, April 23 I pedaled off to go to Shirley Agudo’s book signing at the Waterstones store, in conjuction with Book Night. It being a beautiful day, I didn’t rush and snapped a few shots before entering. Still, I got there early enough to spot famous & fabulous Fabiola approaching the book store on his/her bike.

See, he/she wasn’t on the cover of ‘Bicycle Mania‘ for nothing :). It was great finally meeting Shirley and fellow-photographer Trevor Waldron, talk Amsterdam bike culture…well, actually, not culture, more about our own hows, whats and whys.

Perhaps because of that evening, I took my time, more than usual, when I hit the streets the next day.

On Sunday I met up with David Bernstein, host of The FredCast, ‘a weekly podcast devoted to the latest cycling news, gear, gadgets, gizmos, components, podsafe cycling music and more’, based in of Park City, Utah.

He was in town on business and seized the opportunity to go for a ride with me. No need for a rental bike, as he’d brought his own speedy Dahon folder.

We sat down in the Jordaan, had a great talk about a whole range of things-to-do-with-cycling and finally landed in Vondelpark to record a new episode: ‘Show #151: Amsterdamize!‘ (interview starts at 29:41). The rest is now ramblin’ history ;).

The rest of the day offered me some more observations, not to be ignored.

And last but not least, Queen’s Day came and went. Life is grand, never a dull moment.

Two Sundays ago I joined a good friend’s birthday celebration, who opted for a bbq in Vondelpark as the spring weather allowed that much. And much more for this particular bike blogger.

Celebrating life. I like.

Exit train, engage escalator, underpass, stairs, bike parking, escalator…and pedal off, the weekend awaits you.

It turned out to be a very, very good weekend. More on that in the next post.