#173: Under the railway overpass way off to the side of Centraal Station.
Not that I normally would, only the back tyre sprung a leak during a thunderstorm, and that was the closest place I could lock it up under shelter.
And not that it got stolen, either. Instead, some klootzak slashed the seat and both tyres [...]
So the bakfiets moving went excellently — three trips piled high with boxes, computer, sewing machine, and 15 kilogram watermelon. It’s a good thing I don’t have a bed, there’s barely space for one in my room any more.
Some observations about the bakfiets: (What is that in English, anyway? Cargo tricycle? Big-bike-with-a-box?)
People ask you for [...]
I dreamed last night that someone stole both wheels off my bicycle.
It must be karmic retribution for all the times I’ve gotten off without paying fines for cycling without lights. Last night I was fined 20 euros for cycling in the cycle lane.
That’s not a typo.
Amsterdam has a lot of trouble with bicycle theft. There’s a thriving black market, centred on a couple of bridges where the junkies cycle past at regular intervals asking people on foot whether they want to buy a bike. So there’s a couple of reasons you might want to paint your bike some unusual colour: [...]
My bicycle is finally back on the road, after more than a month of mismanagement. I botched the process so thoroughly, I thought it might be instructive (or at least amusing) to tell the tale. This is sort of a How-Not-To Guide to Don’t-Do-It-Yourself bicycle maintenance.
Wheeoo, I thought I was past being surprised at Dutch bicycles, but I’ve had to think again! Walking through Amsterdam is sort of technology fair for things bike-related, and you get used to seeing a family of four all hanging off the same two or three wheels, or somebody moving house with all his worldly [...]
Spectacular absurdity. A one-legged Irish murderer explores a distorted reflection of his home village, many years after his crime. The deviations from reality grow more pronounced and disturbing (and more hilariously inventive) at every turn. He will learn how the colour of the wind at the moment of his birth determined his life expectancy, why [...]