Riding Bikes in Amsterdam

My last blog post spoke about my fear of heights and overcoming it to try the Over the Edge Swing which happens to be the highest swing in Europe. Amsterdam was certainly a holiday for me not letting my fears hold me back and another one of those was riding bikes on the streets of Amsterdam. While Amsterdam is probably the most cyclist friendly city in Europe I was nervous about taking up the task having not rode a bike for the best part of ten years.

Thankfully I was more than relieved when I realised you could rent bikes with the brakes on the handles like in England. We only had a short amount of time on our last day to complete this activity so we booked the bikes out for an hour and went all around the boat docking areas and up a few of the nearby streets surrounding the station area.

I soon realised I had nothing to worry about as despite being a tad unsteady - it's true what they say you never forget how to ride a bike. My main challenge while riding around was the other tourists who often just walked out in front of you in the cycle lanes without looking. 

Overall though I found it to be an incredibly enjoyable experience and one of my favourite from the whole weekend away. Biking around was a great way to see the city and get around quickly, the cycle lanes are really easy to navigate and use and cyclists definitely do get priority in the city. Despite being hard exercise it is definitely something I would repeat with far less worry as I had forgotten how enjoyable it was riding a bike, and riding a bike with the views of Amsterdam city and the canals made it quite possibly the best bike ride I have ever had.

Have you ever visited Amsterdam? If so have you rented the bikes and had a ride around?