In this episode, we talk about why people in the Netherlands love bicycling so much. We’ll explore their amazing cycling culture and look at the great bike paths and infrastructure that make it all possible. Join me, Mariamartha, as I share interesting facts and stories about biking in the Netherlands. Whether you’re a biking fan or just curious, this episode will give you a new appreciation for Dutch cycling! 🚴♂️🚴♀️
If you have any questions or an interesting story to share, please reach out to us in the comments section below or via email at mapsandmetaphors@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!
I remember one day I saw a car it was a camper a motor home and uh I got off my bicycle because it was big like a city bus like a bus yeah yeah after that there was a boat and behind that there was a car it was like a train on the road and those people said high and Mindy their chairs inside that motor they stopped they watched out those people are on bicycle they have everything on this one little bicycle they really staring at each other how is it possible I’d never seen a thing like that now that couldn’t it’s not possible in the Netherlands all the roads would be clogged by so I would like to know like what’s your memory of uh your first bicycle and uh like when you were young like what kind of bicycles did you used to ride but the whole topic today is bicycles okay like we’re going to talk about icles yeah so Maria Mara welcome again thank you how are you I’m fine yeah uh yeah we we were discussing about uh Amsterdam and about you uh growing up in Amsterdam in the last conversation and it was quite informative I think uh for a lot of my audience uh going further in this uh series of uh you know uh exploring Netherlands and Amsterdam together with you we would like to know more about uh a very important uh thing in Netherlands uh almost integrated as a part of Dutch lifestyle it’s the bicycles so would like to know like what’s your memory of uh your first bicycle but the whole topic today is bicycles okay like we’re going to talk about bicycles yeah my first memory of bicycles is sitting in front of my father in a little chair on on his uh handle B yeah and uh now watching around me I can’t remember that after that I I after I got bigger I I went on the back side of my mother’s bicycle in another seat a bigger seat there were uh the houses weren’t big in Amsterdam and uh when you had a bicycle of your own you couldn’t uh put it in the house you had no shed no balconies and uh apartment blocks okay and so there were in another Street there was an stalling and there you could put your bicycle you had to pay uh an amount of money in in a month and there and the man who uh had this seller it was rather seller like you had to to go downstairs to put your bicycle but he also had a repair shop so when there was a flat tire he could mend it and and you paid for it um that’s my first memory and then uh it was a bit now it cost money so uh there wasn’t much money so my father put his bicycle in the I can’t find the the English word in the stalling we called it and my mother’s bicycle we had to carry it up two stairs to put it in the apartment okay and children’s bicycles there weren’t hardly any in the beginning of the 50s but you could rent children’s bicycles for 10 cents an hour 10 cents you mean okay for the the previous currency of the previous currency yeah and uh but these bicycles did not have brakes not yeah hand hand on the handles uh steer steering that’s it’s not a steering wheel what you call it the handlebar and no uh bicycles no Blake in the wheels so it was rather dangerous but oh I mean just to make it more clear in the current times I know the Dutch bikes where you uh the paddle if you paddle in the riverse uh it will just break it will just break they weren’t there no they were just on the adult bikes not on this little children’s bike that you could rent for an hour was just like a toy you could rent okay I I think I um saw those bik bikes in the catlon and I think uh my son also has one right now and it’s basically without uh even the paddles no there were pedals okay the kids bik the kid bikes you you have them without pedals they’re like walking Cycles we call them but the one that you are explaining was with the pedals but without the brakes without the brakes okay which was rather scary in the beginning but anyway I learned how to Bic How to cycle on a bicycle like that but uh when I was seven I think about seven years or eight I was too I became too heavy to for my mother to take me on her bicycle so then my father my parents bought a children’s bicycle for me with Brakes in Reverse okay okay so those the technology was there but apparently it was because of the cost and other factors there were some bikes which were probably made cheaper uh for someone to have it without the brakes for a lower cost maybe for for example you were explaining about the rental bikes so and Al also I think uh it it has lesser maintenance if the brakes are not there of course yeah okay but okay I will uh also share my memory um from India uh when I was growing up uh it was quite an excitement uh quite a thing for for a kid to get a bicycle yeah um and why uh it was usually a a thing in the middle class families uh uh that you get the bicycle only if you score well or you do well in your exams or in your school so it was kind of a negotiation that you get uh into with your parents um and only after that you uh if you Excel there you know whatever you have promised you know I don’t know like this this might sound a little bit weird to you in my case there’s no no doesn’t sound weird at all but in my case I was too happy to sit in on the back of uh backside of my mother okay and uh public transport was expensive and our relatives lived in North Holland about 30 km from Amsterdam so it was cheaper to buy a bicycle for me that it was our way of Transport yeah and uh also our way of going on a holiday when we could couldn’t afford holidays so when my father when it was nice weather my father took a day off and we went uh we we went on a bicycle tour from Amsterdam and I got to know all the surroundings of Amsterdam I think also we are talking two different timelines uh talking about ’90s and you’re probably talking about 50s and um but still like I could resonate with a lot of things and geographically also like India is like way different uh compared to Netherlands Netherlands is more flat um and in India also like we travel to like very large distances as well at least I have a memory of doing that in my childhood uh and bicycle was more of a thing uh not really necessity uh you may or may not go to your school on bicycle uh really depends you know how far your school is it could be applicable in the very initial years let’s say the primary school or in Dutch we say bus School uh which is nearby your house uh you might consider uh sending your kid uh on the bicycle um otherwise usually there were like school buses who would pick and drop the kids or maybe the parents pick and drop like very very there were no school buses so you had to go by now on primary school I went walking yeah but when I went to secondary school I went on bicycle only when it was raining very hard or snowing or whatever yeah I I got a bus ticket and I could go by tram mhm not a bus but trm yeah yeah so um yeah it was our usual way of Transport yeah bicycle very practical and uh I think u in today’s time if you bring those parameters it’s very sustainable uh it’s practical um yeah budget friendly you you can the list keeps on going you know yeah but uh little bit curious of uh because Dutch and bicycles I think they go hand inand like uh there’s so many uh references to that I mean and I live here also know it’s it’s it’s the thing still you know it’s it’s kind of intact with the culture but let’s say You must have seen uh Evolution even in the bicycles uh to compare to what we have I’m not talking about the electric bikes but uh like standard City bikes what used to be then um how is that has it evolved also something first you have just a bicycle with brakes and that’s it and after that you the more luxurious bikes had three uh for Snelling oh my goodness gears gears three gears if you were lucky and then later you get you got those racing bars that got more gears yeah and then normal bikes also could have more gears but then I was already when I got a bicycle with three gears I was an adult and when I went to Spain on bicycle in 1996 by myself uh I had a bicycle with three s so I could uh make shift shift 21 times so interesting because I had to climb m mountains yeah was it and then I was in my 40s near 40s probably that was a mountain bike or uh no it was not a mountain bike it was um a hibrid you called it hybrid yeah hybrid just um in between a normal City Bicycle or a mountain bike so it had a little slightly bigger uh Tires Tires and uh it had gears and it was not a very heavy bike yeah um but also looking at the bicycles uh let’s say the ones which are having the pedal brakes when did that come or was it always there and I’m also curious to know when was the first time like the bicycles with the handbrakes became popular was it already no there were already um uh handbrakes um an English brand for instance rally my mother got a rally at one time time I think also in the 50s and that had hand bikes okay hand brakes and it was so Chrome you know with a curve uh that yeah kind of St like this then metal yeah okay you could break by by pressing your hands yeah and I got a new Bic when I was seven years old because there were no second hand children’s bikes after the war and when I got bigger I went to secondary school I got my mother’s bike and she got a new one yeah okay yeah that’s that’s uh beautiful I think if you share the bike in the family uh why not with children’s bik C when when also when children got too big for the bikes smaller children got the bike or you s sold it or you gave it away to relatives I don’t know yeah I think it’s it’s really interesting I think we’ve covered like a lot about your experience with the bike you know growing up uh having the bike owning it and uh several things one thing I want to really highlight is that the the the most beautiful thing uh still that’s in Netherlands and I admire that people still use bicycles and uh doesn’t matter whether the person is a student or a working professional uh whatever post he at uh for example he would or she would uh not hesitate using the bicycle and uh that’s quite something it’s very normal means of Transport yeah and I think there are more bicycles than people in the Netherlands because many people do have two bikes and even now with the electric bikes we also have normal bike and an electric bike so the two of us have four bikes yeah I don’t use my normal bike not very much anymore because it there something wrong with it and Tak cost a lot of money to repare it so I think I’m old enough that I’m I’m allowed to use electric yeah I agree one thing which is very important we should talk about and that’s it that’s about the infrastructure of the bike L uh and I think a lot of of us would have questions about it um so I would start with mine uh talking about the infrastructure um was it always like this uh neatly paved uh with the colors uh like red vety uh cycle path let’s say I call it like that in my own words there were cycle paths yeah but they sometimes they were horrible because they were just like with those tiles those square tiles you find in the streets to walk on and they always go they’re not equally pasted so and were not very comfortable and then you had um cemented parts and now they’re almost everywhere they asphalt uh DED okay and um there were there were not that many as there are now and uh in the sometimes in natural areas there were Sandy uh uh cycling Parts okay you couldn’t cycle when there was it was very dry it was very M we call it I don’t know the English word m s I can look at that slippery one or no no no well it’s that’s very soft the is very soft and deep and so you can’t come through it yeah when it was very wet yeah it was also muddy you couldn’t cycle so but now in Dent the province of Dent here in north of the country is the province with the most uh the most kilometers of cycling Parts in the Netherlands okay yeah a lot of attention is paid so that people can travel safely to the work along busy roads there all there all after the war they made a lot of those cycling Parts along the roads and off the road so that you can make a nice trip yeah I mean your your last memory of uh this broken infrastructure like not really that great uh it’s from which year like which year were you mentioning uh I mean you were explaining about the I’m explaining about 70 years so in the in the curent current of time cycling Parts became they became more Cy they came more cycling parts and they became better cycling Parts but when did it start improving uh 60s when they come money things could be improved from the’ 60s ’70s ‘ 80s and still they still are doing that so 60s on on words like it was more seriously taken uh care of yeah with attention and more funds being allocated to the Improvement in the infrastructure maybe later I don’t know but now even they try to make safe cycling ways for people to go from one city to the other in croning the province of croning yeah they have those canals and from croning to Asen for instance they try to make a cycling path along the canal uh without cars so that’s only used by cyclists and which are very safe I can only think of it in Netherlands and I have never heard this inter city travel by bicycle very normal they’re trying to to implement them now yeah it’s it’s really an interesting one uh but it also makes me think uh that why what were the circumstances that you know led to people think that Cycles or bicycles actually could be so useful um experience yeah exper and everything yeah follow the money yeah follow the money it’s cheap yeah it’s good for your health it’s good for nature yeah and uh from the 70s there was more became more attention for nature as well in’ 70s it’s not new this climate business because 50 years ago we were also talking about climate and about um biological food and that’s not new but it was not as general as it is becoming now because it’s more necessary okay so that’s something new I uh was never really uh in conversation with anyone like having this firstand knowledge uh understanding that people were already talking about that so probably the sense was there you know people had the sense but in in in silos in some circles you know I told you my children and my eldest to went to the F Hall the r anthroposophical school and Ru of Steiner and his anthroposophy yeah uh he also had theories on food on medicine yeah on nature on agriculture mhm and uh my children went there in the 70s so in the 70s I already was interested in healthy food uh healthy medicine and that’s not new at all but they were not very it was not very general it was not very general was not the mainstream it was in no it was not mainstream what was it ever a part of Manifesto for example like political campaign someone is doing some not really so it was not in not like the links our green party yeah uh it wasn’t there yet but people don’t fall from uh things don’t fall from the air it’s a development yeah yeah it it makes a lot of sense um and rudol Steiner had already uh uh he was from before the second world war with his theories so it’s not very new but he was not uh generally known and now this has become more like a crisis or at least it’s getting projected as a crisis the whole climate change we had a report of Rome when was that it’s decades ago and it was already well known that uh there was a climate issue but people didn’t want to hear of it now we have spoiled so much that you can’t get around it anymore yeah it’s also very surprising that uh when you mentioned about this the infrastructure about the bicycle lane so there was an involvement of government as well probably uh for this initiatives probably it was coming from the demand of people as well it was also economically cheaper for individuals to afford it but interesting thing is that at the same time uh there was such a there was also a lot of Boom for the uh Vehicles you know individual or personal vehicles cars automobiles uh and how how was that like you must have lived through that experience so um was it because the cars were still not in reach of a lot of people they were expensive my father had his first car in 1963 okay it was a secondhand Ford Savior and that’s what they could afford my parents never could afford new car yeah so and um why did he need a car I don’t know to go on holidays because to his work was easier to get by bus and boat he had to take a little boat to get to the north of Amsterdam and um you know when people get money they want things people are greedy people want to have things people and when one when your neighbor buys a car you also want to buy a car is so true when one relative buys a car you w also want a nicer car so that’s how it went yeah that’s what I remember anyway but it it’s counter to the to the the culture which is still preserved about the bicycles uh that’s make me that makes me wonder and question even more uh because I have seen in India like U there was a time when like it was not so common uh for people to have cars uh uh affordability maintenance service cost goes together and this was was before the markets were Global I’m talking about uh the ‘ 80s uh that was the last which was still like closed economy and um there there was a general uh Trend you would see like if one owns a car it would be rare for you to see them going on a bicycle again yeah here it was also parallel you had and the bicycle and you you kept using it and you had a car yeah no but like if you have a car uh if you bought a car you had a bicycle was it it was probably normal to people for people to use car and bicycle both you know time to time as in when which whichever thing is practical at this time now my parents could go to my grandparents by car which was faster of course uh and they could go when it rained or in Winter you didn’t go on bicycle when it rained or was very cold yeah but so it gave you more opportunities to reach uh larger distances yeah so you could see something of the country of your own country so yeah that’s I think it also becomes practical with uh with the country being small and flat and uh the infrastructure laid in such practical way that there are dedicated cycling Lanes um in Netherlands and um it just connects inter cities as well so what can you expect better than that and it’s it’s really one of the best example yeah when you want to go from Amsterdam to amford you can cycle I I did at the end of the 50s I went with family of friend uh to strw which is of a village past Amwood and there was also a cycling path along the road and there were just two lanes roads in was not uh highways yeah not yet yeah and um but was all rather primitive so now you would go on a holiday with u a family of six seven uh you wouldn’t go on bicycles you would go by car because you can take more stuff and then we we each had a back on the back of our bicycles and that was it for a whole week no I think I agree what you’re saying I could relate to it uh I very much understand that what you’re saying so inter city travel with the cycle thing with that long distance between uh Amsterdam and armor forth uh it’s it’s not really practical in every day but what I’m appr iting is that there is an infrastructure between those cities those two cities and it is well maintained so even if it’s your holiday trip there is a possibility and because the country is so small and flat uh probably that’s the reason it’s it’s possible and and the second is like um the dedication to keep it uh well functional the that’s that that’s the most important factor why it still stays is they’re intact you know there are funds allocated to it for the maintenance of the of the cycling L Lanes um along with the proper normal roads so they are taken care with respect with responsibility and that is what I’m trying to appreciate here yeah but when you could uh afford a car there came more and more cars and there was not much attention for cyclists and now these days uh you when you go here from here to the city to the center yeah you can cycle as a cyclist and you don’t have to get off your bicycle but in the old uh forly every road you had to to to get of your bicycle okay let the cars pass and that was not very comfortable so people rather took their cars than the bicycles and because they want to promote cycling now uh the country and the city that City councils are making it more comfortable for cyclists okay so that they can promote cycling and keep all those gases from away away that’s development first bicycles a vehicle was a luxury item and uh now that was important and all attention all money went to roads m uh uh motorways and things like that okay and uh when I was young I don’t know how many motorways there were maybe one or two A2 i’ of all I’ve seen them being built you know okay A2 was probably still there I guess A2 no A2 was a two lanes okay okay and now four lanes when I was uh driving myself but between aov and then BOS it’s just two lanes for years it’s maybe 30 years that it’s four no no not even that it’s four lanes from AO to deos okay A50 is one of the the newest A50 A50 from here to uh the north yeah from an over to the north then the here you have to drive to Austin and you pick up the A50 here it’s 59 where you go to the direction you pick up the A50 from aen all the way to uh SW and F Okay and like Road between indoan and Amsterdam was still like a very like two-way now it was two ways until then boss anyway after that it was four lanes and um it has never become much more because of the the rivers and the bridges and now there’s this where we live here emple is uh kope punt all those English words they’re so new I I didn’t I never learned them in my studies all those new words you know so I lack uh modern vocabulary when I went from uh harage to edenburgh yeah there was also in England was two lanes all all with hundreds of roundabouts I still see that driving in the um in Oxford a reading uh that old England or uh yeah around that Circle you know once I did it so very narrow roads uh I think it’s two two two lane only probably something from the south to edenburgh what’s two lane road now there are mot ways yeah yeah okay it’s interesting and I’m probably seeing some patterns there but uh yeah it’s up to interpretations as well um for example like uh so you’re saying like there was probably a time when car was uh probably an item of luxury and considered more safe because when you were mentioning that people had to get off their bike at some point maybe the the roundabouts or some Crossing points actually crossing point you had to get off because the car came from the right and they had forong okay preference yeah I think very much like uh I I would not compare for a moment uh India I would compare even America or Canada uh they’re still like uh it’s not the best infrastructure for the bicycles no not at all when we went in when was it 2001 we took our bicycles to Chicago there we drove by car uh to the border of Ontario and there we started our trip our tour and uh people our relatives Pizza relatives telephoned us you shouldn’t do this it’s too dangerous to travel here on bike people are not used to to see SST to yeah to wait for them to give them space and things like that and we thought now we’re not crazy we are going and I I had made a uh what that an itinerary yeah and uh not along motorways of course that’s not allowed but all those Country Roads and uh now yeah it was it was perfect yeah we were stared at because we had our luggage in the back and on the front of our wheel and and I I remember one day I saw a car it was a camper a motor home and uh I got off my bicycle because it was big like a a city bus like a bus yeah yeah after that there was a boat and behind that there was a car it was like a train on the road and those people said high and mighty on their chairs inside IED motor they stopped they watched us those people are on bicycle they have everything on this one little bicycle they really staring at each other how is it possible I’ve never seen a thing like that now that couldn’t n it’s not possible in the Netherlands all the roads would be clogged by those think it’s such a wonderful example you know like you could do so much with so little um and to the extent you one can go to exploit you know the resources we have like it’s it’s such a good parallel uh such a good example like you mentioned about the story of you being in America and uh someone from the motor home watching you on the bicycle like having all your household stuff like at least for that duration you know anyway one of those relatives was very very uh concerned and he bought a secondhand U telephone GPS no was not not yet was 2001 you had no GPS yet not on the phone was not a smartphone but anyway uh so that he could contact us that he could call us on the way an American uh thing and uh yeah and even we went to a a nation in a park in a national park so a natural area you know and was Algonquin Park and it was about 80 km we had to to drive through that Park and um and he went after us by car to check if we were still safe they didn’t find us because we rented the cottage for a few days and the car and so we could go into the park and then walk Trails okay he couldn’t find you guys we had lots of Adventures beat and ey our Honeyman was also in bicycle wow over Greek Islands yeah and the last last cycling tour we made or trip we made was six years ago B was already nearly 88 and we cycled all the way from the border to Denmark until Poland wow and along the no o Baltic Sea it’s called somewhere anyway it’s very nice very interesting was our last uh our last holidays on our own energy super high and the rest we walked yeah that’s another thing I think you we walked with backpack backpack that’s the nicest thing to do because then you really are in nature you can follow small paths and yeah yeah I think with the bicycle and the possibility to walk you know at even that’s amazing to have you know that infrastructure uh the walking um like uh how do you say uh the pedestrians paths uh or pedestrian Lanes uh it makes everything so accessible uh if if you uh are on a bicycle or by walk like you could just explore so much and not worry about parking your car or finding a parking space or all those kind of my daughter is a member of a society which is called the world fitzer so the world cyclist and people are M of that U who make big cycling tours all over the world and my daughter was planning a trip along the Pacific okay and she had already booked a flight with a bicycle and had taken off a few months to do that and then she fell ill so she couldn’t do it but uh every year she makes a cycling tour now she goes by train to Berlin and then she makes a tour of Germany also along the O SE coast of the o z Baltic Sea I think it’s called and uh East Germany and then she goes back by train again but usually she Cycles to Rome to Santiago along the Atlantic I’m sorry France along the coast tour of England Ireland yeah that’s uh she inherited that from me I think yeah it’s it’s very Dutch right very Dutch yeah but you know it’s so satisfying so basic you meet lots of people all people all the people who are go walking with backpack or cycling with a luggage yeah they are interested where you from where you going to um you make lots of lots lots of lots of acquaintances and and you you experience how many nice and good people there are how much help you can get if you need it mhm there’s always a place to sleep and that you we have never been without food which was a miracle sometimes yeah but it forms you and makes you happy with little things yeah yeah it it gives you more of a realization uh of what you’re explaining uh how much how how little you need yeah and also the social interactions the probability of having social interactions uh definitely agree on this part yeah goes back to bicycles or even walking I uh I regret that I didn’t do this when my children were young with my former husband he didn’t like making one step by himself or cycling tour so and yeah we never did it but I’m very sorry because I think it’s good for children to realize that those basic physical um exercises makes you feel so healthy yeah and makes you enjoy nature and then you also realize how important climate is you know you you will look after your own Earth better in your own place because we can only do those little things yeah I think so those days di it wasn’t possible for me and we did we we went camping also very basically because there was never money yeah I’ve never been rich but uh yeah still we may do with it yeah I enjoyed many nice things yeah I mean when you mentioned about being rich um I was listening to One interview of Bob Marley he he was just questioning you know like what kind of Rich are you talking about is it about the money or experiences or living life to the Max uh with the Happ you seek for so that definition is also like if you go in the philosophical sense but still inand there are two words which I like um it’s between well well is having goods and money well sorry and well wellbeing well and well wellbeing and having things yeah money and and wealth yeah money and wealth money and versus Health yeah yeah yeah so you need to have a balance it’s not really be healthy but also be satisfied be uh make do to be able to make do with what you have yeah that’s it’s all about experiences uh when you are on Earth yeah uh let’s say yeah yeah it was an amazing uh conversation it went a little bit slow I think from from my side at least for asking questions but uh I think it it we covered almost all what I wanted like the whole conversation was supposed to be about the bicycles especially in Netherlands and um it’s inspiring especially the infrastructure and because it’s a safe infrastructure for the bicycles we tend to do more bicycling and like get it daily historically I’m not very good at facts but you can also you can yeah I will you can look them up and uh it’s what I experience and what I remember that what matter like I can anyone can look it up on Google like specific facts can only come up from the person but yeah I think thanks uh for your time