Amsterdam by bike, naturally

BY KAMALA HAYMAN

Everyone does it, the young, the old, the fit, the not-so-fit. As I stand at a street corner opposite Amsterdam's frenetic Centraal Station, I am struck by the sight of an entire community on bikes.

A mother speeds past with nappies jammed in a bread crate behind her seat and a toddler in a box on the front. An older man with his faithful dog follows, its ears flattened as they fly past. A slender woman - unimpeded by her long dress and a violin jammed in her basket - takes a more leisurely pace, although not as meandering as the two lovers pedalling slowly by as they chatter, smile, and lean in for a kiss.

Amsterdam is the cycling capital of the world.

For 20 years I was an enthusiastic cycle commuter in both Christchurch and London, not because I'm an obsessive exerciser nor anti-car greenie, but because I'm a little bit lazy - I can't stand walking - and because I'm impatient and unable to wait for a bus or train. Children have temporarily put a spanner in my commuting spokes so I was thrilled at the prospect of getting back in the saddle in Amsterdam.

Our hotel, the Novotel, near Amsterdam's Rai station, offers us two bikes for the day. The hotel has recently been refurbished, a [Euro]26 million (NZ$47.2m) spend-up which left it with an ultra-modern ground-floor complete with an Asian-inspired restaurant and booths with TV screens for solo travellers, but with its bike-hire fleet temporarily out of action. Thankfully, a kindly manager, perhaps sensing my desperation, finds us a couple of spare staff bikes to use.

Our new steeds are neither mountain nor racing bikes but the sit-up-and-beg design favoured by the Dutch. The upright stance ignores aerodynamics in favour of relaxed pedalling and conversation. They are easy to step on and off, even in skirts, and ours comes with a built-in lock so we don't need to carry anything except a small key. No-one in Amsterdam wears a helmet.

Admittedly, the city streets are a little bewildering. Not only do we have to get used to riding on the right-hand side; we have to negotiate tram tracks and criss- crossing cycle lanes, not to mention the many smaller intersections which appear to be uncontrolled.

Thankfully, our fellow road users are an exceptionally tolerant bunch. At one point we find ourselves cycling along a narrow one-way road, a stack of cars queuing up behind us, when I belatedly notice our cycle lane. We swerve immediately on to it, incredulous that no driver has tooted or shouted at us for unnecessarily blocking their path. Impossible to imagine on any New Zealand road.

A 20-minute ride with only a couple of stops for map checks, and we are outside the Van Gogh Museum housing 200 of the artist's 900 paintings.

Our "I Amsterdam" cards gave us free entry and a shorter queue. The cards cost [Euro]48 (NZ$86.80) and are valid for 48 hours. For [Euro]38 (NZ$69) you can buy a card valid for 24 hours, while a [Euro]58 (NZ$106m) pass remains valid for 72 hours. The card provides free entry to dozens of tourist attractions, free public transport, a canal cruise and discounts at a range of restaurants. It does not include free or discounted entry to the city's most popular attraction, the Anne Frank House ([Euro]9 - NZ$16.40).

Lunch is to be at The Pancake Bakery, a restaurant on one of the city's first waterways, the Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal).

We lock our bikes by a handy tree, but spying a dress shop next door we can't resist ducking in for a quick purchase.

A narrow door and a few steps leads down to a dimly lit restaurant serving 75 different sweet and savoury pancakes. I choose the Masai, a pancake stuffed with broccoli, leeks, mushrooms and cheese, but later wonder if a sweet pancake may have been the better option.

We can't muster up the patience to join the queue for the Anne Frank museum so carry on into the city centre to pick up a canal cruise. The hour-long trip is a chance to enjoy the city's striking 17th-century architecture from a new angle and pick up a lifetime's worth of pub quiz trivia. We learn that Amsterdam's harbour is fresh water thanks to two locks that seal it from the sea and that its 1.4 million inhabitants own 550,000 bicycles. More than 2500 of them are crammed into the two-storey bike stands outside Centraal Station.

Amsterdam's canals were part of an elaborate city plan dating back to the early 1600s. Our tour takes us past the most magnificent of homes with highly decorated gables, pillars and balustrades as well as more modest homes, less ornate and noticeably narrower. Taxes were once levied on width, so houses were narrow but impractically tall and deep. Common to all is the hoisting beam at roof height, used to this day for lifting furniture to the upper levels.

Our cruise also takes in a multiplicity of canal boat homes, some near-derelict with peeling paint and roughly hammered planks, others bursting with bright colours, flowers and flags. Many seem to be more house than boat, and in the case of a floating red- brick construction are clearly not going anywhere.

Back on land we stumble across a bar, not mentioned in our guidebook, but which proves one of the highlights of our day. The Wynand Fockink has been distilling liqueurs in the same spot for three centuries and is still offering tastings from 60 different brews infused with the flavours of aniseed or cranberries, citrus or cloves, plus more. They range from throat-gaspingly strong and sour to lip-lickingly smooth and sweet. The tiny glasses are filled to the brim, and any customer who dares to lift one before bending to take a slurp, risks a slap from the staff.

As the afternoon draws to a close, we decide to wend our way back to the hotel along the banks of the Amstel River. The city is named after a dam on this wide and gentle waterway used to service industry and for recreation.

We cycle until the city proper gives way to pastures and grand country mansions with ancient thatched roofs and sparkling new swimming pools.

Near a traditional Dutch windmill we pause for tea at a riverside cafe, the Klein Kalfje, where our cuppa is served without milk but with a tasty syrup- flavoured wafer. Now truly weary, we are happy to pedal the final few minutes back to our hotel, pausing to photograph a beast I'm sure is a misplaced Highland cow, standing knee-deep in a pond.

A perfect day in a cyclist's paradise. I hope to return.

* Kamala Hayman flew to Amsterdam courtesy of Emirates, including a leg in its impressively luxurious A380 business class.

* If time allows, have an overnight stop in Dubai to break up what is a very long flight. The author stayed one night in the new Sofitel Hotel at Jumeirah Beach, with beach views marred only by Dubai's summer haze. When it's too hot to actually visit that beach - and it was on this trip - the hotel is blessed with a Bond- movie-style pool where you can drink at the bar without leaving the water. Supping fruit cocktails, while floating in a hotel pool overlooking the Persian Gulf was so surreal, the author is starting to doubt it actually happened. Best try it for yourself.

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