Amsterdam: Bikes Galore!

My sister flew out to Europe to visit us for 3 weeks. We flew to Amsterdam from Barcelona, and took a taxi to our Airbnb apartment (instead of a hotel, we stayed at someone's apartment who had an extra room). Our host, Daniel, was amazing!!! We arrived, and he had 3 water glasses, tea glasses, and muffins waiting for us. He also had an iphone with 20 euros, extra adaptors, and bike maps for us to use during our trip. He then walked us to the nearest bike rental place so that we could get bikes for our 3-4 days. Everyone in Amsterdam has bikes! It's the main mode of transportation... Daniel made sure to warn us about the bikes: they are SERIOUS about bikeriding. They will run you over if you walk in their path (they have their own bike lanes that are clearly marked so pedestrians should be smart enough to steer clear). It took us about a day to get comfortable riding around on bikes and using the double lock system-- and our bums were definitely sore every day! And still, I couldn't manage to start gracefully after red lights. But in just 3 days, we grew ultra-reliant on the bikes! We rode them EVERYWHERE around the city. It was so easy and quick to travel from place to place. We had to return them by 4:30 on Tuesday, but we still were doing some sightseeing, so we had to walk to the final places, and MAN! The walk took us at least triple the time as our bikes! It was not fun. If any of you eventually visit Amsterdam (or anywhere in the Netherlands), my best tip I can give you is to rent/buy/use a bike! 

Our room in Amsterdam. Isn't it cool? 

The kitchen with our water and tea waiting for us

Bikes, bikes, and more bikes! 

On our first bike ride, we caught our first glimpse of Amsterdam's canals-- I'll talk about them more in another post.

Beautiful, right?

We rented Red Bikes for our 4 days; they were so helpful!

More scenic views of the canals and the apartments next to them

On our bike ride home over one of the canals, we saw this huge hotel. WOW! 

Yup, I'm riding my bike with my camera over my shoulder-- I have to be ready to take any photo at moment's notice! Notice, this "street" is actually made for bikes! The "red" bike streets are everywhere-- if you're walking, stay out of the bike lanes!

Yummy food! 

Margherita Pizza-- looks different from pizzas at home, but still delicious

The canal bridges raised sometimes to let bigger boats pass through underneath