Every winter you’ll see the same phenomenon unfold in Amsterdam (and basically anywhere else in the country): the Dutch desperately seeking refuge on the terraces.

A people desperate for a shot of UV, specially near the end of a long, cold and dark winter, a real winter.

This one being the record-braker that it was, last weekend the sight of Amsterdammers scrambling for their spot in the sun must have triggered the curiosity of many visitors: “How can these people sit outside? It’s freezing!!”

As always, the answer is quite simple. Blue skies, the sun blazing and there was hardly any wind to speak of. All you need to temporarily escape the grip of a relentless winter.

Oh, and of course they will get to their place in the sun by bicycle. You could call that instrumental for a full recovery…and dream of the end of winter. And when you let people on bicycles be your seasonal talisman, you’d be convinced spring had already arrived ;).

Staying ahead of a serious snow storm, Lauren arrived in Amsterdam one day early to spend a short week with me…in a city that had just welcomed a new white coating.

Leading up to this, she was very excited about the prospect of riding her new bicycle around. Not the omafiets I had bought her around the holidays, but a different one, the very special Workcycles Secret Service I had won in the BicycleMania photo contest. All that was left for her to do, was hop on the back of my bike and ride with me to the place where the small prize ceremony would unfold.

We were welcomed by Eduard Planting of ‘Fine Art Photographs‘, Bert van Essen of The Expat Journal, the publisher of BicycleMania and Henry Cutler of Workcycles, who sponsored the first prize.

I can safely say this bicycle found its rightful owner.

Meeting up with Daniela and her Camilla

This stylish and dependent new friend will be waiting for Lauren when she returns in May, this time to stay.

A sunny yet cold and windy day will give you the chills. Good thing you get to keep warm while on the move. Wordplay of the day: icycle.

Or you can just warm up with the thought of water-skiing on the Amsterdam canals this summer…

People keep asking me whether we Dutch ride with tire studs much during winters like this one. Nope. You just deal with it, adjust and take care out there. I certainly don’t see the need, my Fr8 handles very well, plenty of traction, it’s just a very well-balanced bike. Dare I say it…its weight comes in handy.

I shot a few pics in between snow fall here and there, taking advantage of a bit of clear sight. Just as much as this city can make you pout when it’s grey, wet and windy, the snow turns into something majestic. Vondelpark was really appealing to just stop, hear the silence and watch people go by, in their new-found element.

Some of my fellow Amsterdam photographers ventured out on different times of the day, to show you all sides of this beautiful (yes, sometimes demanding) winter season.

Winter Wonderland Amsterdam by AmsterS@m

A saddle too cold for biking by Ben

amsterdam by Wojofoto

Ice skating in the Jordaan by Ben

To close: as you may have noticed, Amsterdamize looks kinda empty. You’d be correct. Last week I tried auto-upgrading this blog and it messed up the database. After looking into it and weighing my options, I now have the daunting task of putting back over 400 posts, one by one. It’s a long story, let’s just leave it at that. Anyhow, if you’re a subscriber, my apologies for seeing all those old posts popping up in your feedreader again. This will go on for quite a while, I’m guessing, so bare with me. Cheers.

My hiatus is over, the new year is already 7 days old, time to move. What I’ve been up to you, you ask? Oh, you know, the usual. Kicking back in my peculiar way, seeing relatives for xmas, spending quality time with Lauren and celebrating that big ol’ street party with friends and some more unwinding. A few excerpts of all those things related:

Lauren stepping up after stepping down from the plane

Post-Xmas city cycling

Street/bike view from Cafe 't Smalle in the Jordaan

Traffic heating up on Dam Square at 20 minutes to 12

A few minutes into the new year on Nieuwmarkt

Blurry canal tour boat view on some bridge bike parking

Colder, but the same

Colder, but the same

Colder, but the same

Waving their goodbyes

Air trail

Two fathers, three sons

King of the world

Take your banana time

And of course there's only one way to get there

Transport modes crossing paths at winter dusk, Leidsestraat

And just when you think it's all winding down…

Here’s to nothing but the best (cycling) for you and your loved ones in 2010.

Numb fingers, biting hands, split lips, freezing eyeballs/frozen contacts, frozen bells, wheel lock key too small to handle with your mittens on, fatal 20 seconds getting circulation back on as quickly as possible, changing the song on your iPod, tricky slippery tram tracks while overtaking gridlocked cars, jumping every red light on purpose, stopping to take pictures along the way, winter has you sing as loud and often as during the summer, sound of crunch of your wheel traveling over snow, the city looks pretty much like Hogsmeade. Deluding yourself with ’spring is around the corner’.

It’s the feedback I got from my housemate Izzy when I put to her, after having captured her morning routine: “Cycling in Amsterdam in winter. Go.”

January is wrapping up, and I’m behind on my posting, life getting in the way and all. One thing that caught my eye, which has created quite some debate in the Netherlands, is last week’s launch of the national ad campaign ‘Pas Op, Aardig‘, or in English ‘Watch Out, Nice’ by SIRE, a Dutch publicly funded, idealistic institution that promotes topics that go ‘beyond political agendas’, touching on societal developments, issues that involve us all, on a human level. Not my words, theirs.

‘Watch Out, Nice’ states that too many people are loosing touch with kindness, or in their words: “Nice people. How do we deal with them?”

It’s the most ridiculous campaign I’ve seen in a long time. Many would shout ‘Nanny state!’, but I’ll stick with pointing out that this campaign was decided on a survey that said that 17% of Dutch people (sometimes to often) feel awkward or suspicious towards nice gestures or help from strangers.

Yeah, very alarming. Not.

PS, while sipping our warm and spiced up whiskeys, Izzy’s closing remarks were: “We are practically in february, which is the short month, March can have some sunny days, April is often as good as summer and then you’re home dry until September. Oh well, it’s still Amsterdam…and you’re still cycling.”

Home Is Where The Bike Leads Me

I went around town for some serious Christmas shopping, but not without stopping and getting off Mr Freight to click away at a few familiar cycle scenes.

T minus 10 seconds

Had je me maar – If only you had me

Give your cycle life some color

My crate was full, time to go home

This leaves me with one more thing…

Starting Amsterdamize in the summer of 2008 was great, 2009 proved to be even better and 2010…well, I’m not in the prediction business, but as long as I got you as my audience I know it will be awesome!

So I say thanks for your passion for cycling, sharing your stories, enjoying mine and making my journey ever so interesting!

See you here and on Amsterdamize in 2010!

Cheers,

Marc

There’s no denial anymore, winter has really arrived. Best of all, it’s a sunny winter spell. Snow fall at night, all clear and crispy during the day, little bit of wind chill…How cold? I dunno, it was cold. ;)

On Friday afternoon I set out to capture what would become the first part. My friend Isabelle already lamented the fact that I had missed out on the beautiful morning light hitting the city. But she was nice enough to share it with me (see above).

But rest assured, the afternoon light wasn’t too shabby, either.

Take-away coffee

High heels txt stop

Then, as soon as I was back home it started snowing and basically that hasn’t stopped since. So here’s a selection of part deux of this winter cycle wonderland;

Dear readers, meet Karlijn, she inquired about my presence :)

Mr. Freight deserved this shot, after fulfilling his tasks so effortlessly.

There are many more in the Winter Cycle Wonderland set, in case you can’t get enough :).

Christmas is approaching fast, the town has been lit up for a while now and many among us are shopping accordingly. One item in particular is hard to overlook while cycling through Amsterdam.

And have a good laugh about just riding off with it. Lumberjack-style.

Oh heck, and let’s throw in a few from a year ago for good measure.

Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Now let’s look ahead and hope for the current cold spell to deliver on its promises…

Ps, Marjon, I think your latest addition would be the perfect xmas card.

UPDATE: Drooderfiets submitted this little nugget, I edited it up and felt it would fit best with this post. Thanks!

I have shown you many different impressions of cycling in Amsterdam (oh, Paris and Copenhagen too, I’d almost forget) over the last six months. Some targeted at a certain topic, some for ambiance, and quite a few just to express myself.

Anticipation For Two.

This city is a place where people want to be, not just because they have to. A place for people, on foot and on bicycles. An historic, thus a dense city, as well. Limited in space, so there has always been a need for maximizing the possibilities, advancing, evolving…and often departing from common conventions. Throw some Dutch pragmatism and fortitude in there and voila, you get a very special cocktail for urban development. Not forgetting the very Dutch nature of being vocal about what they want and need (it’s nice to get something back from paying all those taxes).

In short, Amsterdam may seem chaotic and obscure, hell, even exotic (not from this world) to many visitors, but it embodies everything good and bad of its people. What you see is what you get.

Give Me Light.

In this particular video I tried to bring all aspects of cycling in Amsterdam (and the Netherlands as a whole, imo) together. The individuality of the people, the absolute normalcy of cycling, come rain or shine, a few facilities, the interactions, vibes, flow and probably a few things that fall in between, left for interpretations.

The Dutch have made cycling part of their DNA, it’s in their social fabric. It’s been a long time since they last stopped, paused and thought about how it came about. Why giving it a second thought when there’s no real need, right?. It’s just there. And it shows.

Particularly with Amsterdammers. They have always had an edge on the rest of the country when it comes to style, non-conformity and ingenuity. It’s a joy to watch and an inspiration for any creative spirit.

I like to think this video will also help convince any hardcore denier that the possibilities are endless. Analyzing and interacting with cycle gear heads all over the interwebs, I’ve heard too many excuses for too long now, big and small. Now would be a good time to stop backpedalling and just embrace it.

Explaining why I came up with this title and that score (as an idea beforehand) is probably not necessary, but I’ll just say it was a no-brainer :-p. (Hold your horses, I know I coulda/shoulda/woulda called it ‘Ciclissimo’, but I didn’t. So there)

Enjoy!