Day 11

Okay...so I may have been a little hasty in my evaluation of the Dutch. They have one thing in common with my pals back home (that's right, all you's Americans!). When they get on wheels (2 or 4 - bikes or autos), they're not so pleasant! I've seen the middle finger used already (no it was not connected to my right hand) and several pedestrians both foreign and local almost get the smackdown put on them by one of these granny-looking bicycles they use here. No self-respecting theif in the US would steal most of them, but apparently they are a hot commodity here. I've seen locks and chains on the crappiest of two-wheelers that would make a battleship anchor envious! I will provide visual evidence of such soon. However, back to the matter at hand...crazy Dutch on two-wheeled "Christine's" (hope you're familiar with Stephen King). Once on a bike, both man and woman become hellbent on getting from point A to point B in the least amount of time with the most amount or peril and bloodshed. You have to watch out here more for the bike traffic than the car. The main reasons being there are more bikes than cars, they're harder to see, and they operate with impunity! From what I'm told....you hit a bicyclist with your car and you should just keep going until you fall and sink into a canal or make the border of Siberia. When I start riding a bike here I'm going to be the proverbial "grandma" with eyes all around my head. Yesterday I watched a local male overtake and cut in front of a local female in the tiniest of spacial windows to pull off such a maneuver. I doubt the late, great Evel Knievel would ride his skycycle through the streets of Amsterdam unnerved!! So there it is. They are still friendly as pedestrians, but watch your ass if you put two wheels under their tall asses, because they have no time to alter their course one millimeter for the likes of walking humans.