Anyone for moving to the Netherlands?

[Trekhawk]

Ok so things are pretty quiet in my house now the oldest boys are back at school and the youngest has started Preschool. So what does one do when the house seems quiet and empty - well first you go for a ride and then of course you start reading your six year old's copy of Book of World Records 2005 and this is why we need to go to the Netherlands.

Country with the most bicycles per capita - The netherlands.

With an estimated 16.7 million bicycles in the country, the Netherlands has more bicycles per capita than any other nation. It averages to more than one bike for every person in the country.

Other useful trivial pursuit knowledge

Country with the most cars - USA

Country that eats the most meat - USA

Country that eats the most ice cream - Australia (see I told my mum it was a food group)

Country that eats the most chips (crisps for you poms) United Kingdom.

[CorsairMac]

Nah - I'm thinking Australia!! especially if they leave the cream in their milk like the UK!!! Yummmmyyyyy

[MightyMitre]

I went to Amsterdam once and the number of bikes is quite incredible. Everywhere in the city there's just piles of them parked up along the roadside. As far as I can tell people don't bother to lock them up with heavey duty locks and the traffic is totally used to having to look out for smaller, fast moving cyclists.

There's also loads in Belgium. Most of the roads have cycle paths and when I was over there last spring, hubby & I were just taking a walk when the local high school ended for the day. The number of kids riding bikes was just staggering. It was the norm, THE standard mode of transport and the accepted way to get from A to B.

Ok - so a lot of the region is flat, but just watch the Tour of Flanders and you'll see there's some short, sharp hills around. Here in the UK one of the most often used excuse for not cycling is that us Brits don't have the weather for it. Well, anyone ever been to Belgium in April or November! With the strong wind blowing in from the North Sea the weather in the Netherlands is no better than in the UK, (sometimes worse,) yet it doesn't seem to put people off. I guess those Netherlanders are tough breed - Ask Eddie Mercx!!

Ice cream and crips - aaaahhhhh. Two of my fave's.
Better get on my bike and try and burn some of those calories off.

[PinkRacer]

I love it there! I even spent a year at the U of Amsterdam! My aunt lives in Monnikendamm Northern part. My friend who I meet years ago (16) while on one of many visit rode our bikes to France for a bike/camping trip.

I also went to school in Germany about 4 hours from the dutch boarder, and we used to ride our bikes over there to a really cool water park.

I actually won an award for a photo I took of my friends all lined up with thier bikes... looking out over the river.

I'm taking my BF there this fall to meet my favorite aunt and we are going to go on several day bike trips while there...

Its so fun seeing old ladies all dressed up riding their bike along wither dress shoes and a huge bunch of flowers....

EVERYONE there cycles...

[greenchick]

Lessee... some of the coolest (and most stunningly multilingual) people I know, gay marriage, universal health care, excellent beer and cheese, and you can bike everywhere across the whole country?

Nah. No interest at all. Really.

[Trek420]

I love it here, I'll never leave...wait, did you say excellent cheese and gay marriage? depends, just HOW good is the cheese?