Another Dimension

When I was about 15 years old, I stepped off a train with about 20 or so other students and half a dozen teachers.  It was the first time I had traveled outside of North America.  I was a sheltered kid, not completely naive, but certainly not wise to the world.  I was not very prepared for Amsterdam.  The teacher leading the trip told us we would be stopping there for a day en route to Norway (our final destination) and mentioned something about a "live and let live" policy in the Netherlands.  She didn't elaborate and since Google didn't exist, I didn't learn anything more about it.  I learned quite a bit when I stepped off that train.  I only found out later that our noble captain had lead us straight through the infamous red light district from the train station to the Dam square.  Everything in between remained etched on my memory for years to come.

Ah, Amsterdam.

The Amsterdam we visited on Saturday was quite different.  This time no rats and garbage filled canals.  It morphed into something else in the last decade or so.  It was quite nice, actually, yet there was something mildly unsettling about it.

You know those Science Fiction stories when the protagonist travels into an alternate reality and the world they are used to doesn't exist because something happened or didn't happen in history?  Well, that type of thing just happened to me.  Turns out, there is an alternate reality in existence and it has nothing to do with legalized pot.

It's all the bicycles.

Imagine a world where except for conversations and perhaps the occasional engine here and there, it's nearly silent.  The only other sounds come from clicking freewheels and chains and occasional bells,  There are more bicycles than cars.  There are so many bicycles, in fact, that you trip over them on the sidewalks and in doorways.  Instead of watching for cars when crossing the street, it's the bicycles that you have to look for.  And, you have to watch for them constantly, because they're always there.   Everywhere.

I knew about the bicycles.  Everyone who knows about bicycles, knows about Amsterdam.  Heck, I'd even seen them before (other sights must have pushed them out of my memory).  However, nothing can really, really prepare you for all the bicycles when you see it.  It was incredible.  It was exactly what it would be like if automobiles never really caught on in the world.

 

It was beautiful, it was silent, and quite frankly, a little bit intimidating if you were driving a car.

Bike shops even outnumber Starbucks.

Of course, there are other things to enjoy besides bicycles.