Not far from Haarlem and Amsterdam, the Zaanse Schans is a bike-able destination. We checked out 17th century saw mills, old farms, Dutch skies, a ferry and passed a waste facility that looked like a luxury hotel.
I remember that in my youth back in Holland in our village of 13,000 a teen called Sjaak (from ‘Jacques’) with Down Syndrome cycled by our house regularly. He had an upright bike with two enormous mirrors. His bike was his pride. The freedom for him was fantastic. He could go where he wanted, was sent out for errands by [Read more…]
A world without signs? We have one woonerf in Ottawa: part of Cambridge is designated as a woonerf. An ‘erf’ is a somewhat old fashioned Dutch word for the area around the farm house, where chickens roam, the dog guards and the cow explores. ‘Woon’ comes from the verb ‘wonen’, Dutch for ‘to live in a place’. Woon-erf more or [Read more…]
The last three posts probably gave you a peek into every day cycling in The Hague. If you are in the down town area, you always see cyclists, no matter what time of day. However, there is one spot where many seem to converse: Central Station. People cycle to and fro the station. Below are a few very random pictures [Read more…]
The locals are complaining about the failing summer already, they have had a lot of cloudy weather. The morning meetings were cancelled, so I walked down the Scheveningseweg to downtown The Hague and I passed this urban chickens. Very nice to see. It is right across the Peace Palace on the edge of a cemetery. Here is the link on Google. [Read more…]
I randomly took a really great picture of a mother on a bakfiets (cargo bike) with three kids after asking permission. Unfortunately, she doesn’t want me to put it on the Internet, which I respect, so you have to come to one of my presentations some day. I did show the pic to a friend of mine, and the woman [Read more…]
I am in Holland in Den Haag (The Hague) for work this week. Locked up in meetings and presentations for most of the day for 5 days in a row, I was eager to go for a walk to visit a friend. Tuesday afternoon I had a change to leave a wee early and walked from the Crowne Plaza (which [Read more…]
Everyone in Ottawa knows why we have tulips, but for those who don’t live here (and I have readers as far as Chicago and Charleston, SC), here is the short summary: Dutch Princess Juliana stayed with her daughters in Ottawa during World War Two. As a token of appreciation, the Royal Family donated thousands of tulips and still continue this [Read more…]
It doesn’t happen too often, but Holland was covered in snow late last week. Cyclists kept cycling, resulting in some really nice pictures of cyclists in the snow. If the “inexperienced-with-snow” Dutch can do it, teens included, we Canadians can no longer use the argument of a snowy country as a reason not to cycle. Enjoy the screen shots from [Read more…]
You probably read already that Ottawa city staff is designing a bike way through the city. Some will argue that it is yet another example of a waste of tax payer’s money (as if $220,000,000 for the Queensway isn’t), but the reality is, that it will be a long term gain. The idea behind a bike way is to create a safe corridor [Read more…]
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