Upon arriving in the Netherlands, severely sleep deprived and facing some serious jet-lag, it began with an incident on the train. Buying a ticket and finding the right platform was easy, however when I made it to Den Haag the train was stopped for quite a while. Eventually an announcement in Dutch prompted everyone to groan and get off the train. I followed warily, totally unaware what the issue was, and scrambled to find another train to get to Delft. Eventually I made it and was relieved to find the city quite easy to navigate.
The first afternoon was spent wandering around, taking in all the winding streets, canal activities and many many bicycles. Firstly I thought it was beautiful of course, but I also really enjoyed the pace. It wasn’t as crazy busy as bigger cities, but wasn’t quaint at all. It felt alive, but it also felt very very safe.
The second day we received received our bikes and we took our first ride around Delft. My first impression was that bikes without hand activated breaks are quite difficult to ride! I thought myself a relaxed and experienced cyclist, but instantly was humbled as the Dutch zoomed around, quite comfortable on their single speed, peddle break bikes. But then, after an hour or two and a few perilous moments that required rapid dismount I remembered I had in fact learned to ride a peddle break bike at age 6 and slowly it started to come back.
So, now that I have adjusted from my road bike position at home to the much more relaxed, upright position of a typical Dutch bike I can now focus less on biking and more on the surroundings. Biking in european cities is in fact the best way to see them. Rather than walking which covers short distances and a slow pace and many sights blending together, cycling allows for more distance to be covered and differences between sites to be more noteworthy. And of course, it seems to be the most effective and even stylish way to get around here.
So far I am very impressed with the Delft bicycle network and am looking forward to exploring the city more on two wheels. The most exciting part about the Netherlands in particular is how many bike facilities and racks there are. This is often a problem elsewhere in the world, especially Canada, that even if you do brave the roads or bike lanes there is nowhere to store your bike at the destinations. This is not the case for Delft. The ability to stop and explore any store, site or activity while riding around is my favourite part so far.
