Bike Travel in the Netherlands: Part 6 (the Riders)

It's endlessly fascinating to watch the variety of people and things that are transported by bike here in the Netherlands. Biking is definitely an ordinary way to get to the office.

And it's also pretty normal to put a kid in a box to get him where he's going.

If you want to take a friend along, just have her hop on the back! Raining? Bring an umbrella.

One of the photos below show a scooter driver giving a cyclist a hand over the bridge, and if you look closely at the bottom left photo, you'll see a girl standing on her mom's rear rack while her sister rides in the front child seat. The right one shows a guy transporting some kind of furniture unit by bike.

These guys made us feel a little more at home.

But this kind of traffic was much more normal.

There are so many bikes that the need enormous parking complexes! This three-level structure is packed with bikes.

We weren't able to get photos of all of the ways that parents travel with kids (and pets!), so here's a little illustration drawn by my husband to show some of the wonderful variety of family transport modes.

One of my favorite Netherlands memories so far has to be watching a kid hop on his mom's rear rack, crouch on the saddle, and then climb into the front basket, sitting there happily with his knees held to his chest. He was completely balanced while doing this and I couldn't help but think he was staring at us the whole time, thinking we were freaks for wearing helmets. As they rode away, his mom leaned forward smiling, and kissed him on the top of the head.