Bikes, Canals and Surinamese Food

Our adventure kicked off with an 8 hr flight to Amsterdam — which will be our home base for the bike trip.

Sadly, no sleep on this overnight flight. Bob productively practiced his Dutch, while I binged Schitt’s Creek

The bikes survived their ride in the belly of the plane — always a relief!

We arrived early morning, where Bob had wisely arranged a driver. Normally we’d take public transportation, but the thought of navigating trains with our beastly bike bags was… less than appealing.

Instead, the driver whisked us to our hotel — where we scored a huge win: early check-in (6 hours ahead of schedule!) and a free upgrade to a massive suite. It’s almost like they knew we’d need the space to reassemble our bikes.

Our room was uncharacteristically spacious by European standards

Bikes reassembled, we hit the city. We have 36 hours to get acquainted with Amsterdam before we load our bikes on a train bound for Prague.

We’d heard Surinamese food was a hidden gem in Amsterdam and had to try it. Verdict? Absolutely delicious.

We learned today that Suriname was a Dutch colony for over 300 years before gaining independence in 1975. Many Surinamese people migrated to the Netherlands, bringing their rich food culture with them. The flavors are unlike anything we’ve had before—unique, and spicy, with hints of African, Caribbean, and Indian influence.

Fueled up, we toodled through the streets and capped the day with a canal tour. Amsterdam really is said to be the Venice of the North.

Our guide was a gem — small group, fascinating stories, and endless details about the canals, architecture, and history that make this city so special.

If you’re a Ted Lasso fan, this is the boat where Rebecca spent the evening after she fell in the canal.

Our guide explained the marvels of the Amsterdam canal system, and how the swampy terrain was drained and managed to make the land inhabitable. There’s an estimated 11 million wooden piers holding the city up.

We were shown this row of houses as an example where the wooden piers have settled, leaving the structures a bit crooked (and charming).

Per our guide-captain, there are 4200 boats along the canals that are permitted as residences. Originally, after WW2 the boats were used as cheap housing to encourage people to move to the city. Now the highly coveted permits for these boats cost up to €800,000 per year!

We’d heard that bikes rule Amsterdam, and it’s true. The city has fully embraced cycling, with dedicated lanes and even their own traffic signals. What surprised us, though, was how few people wear helmets. In fact, I don’t think we saw a single one all day.

We were planning to catch a tram back to our hotel but opted to walk and are so glad we did. We wandered along the Amstel River and passed some cool museums, including the national maritime museum which had some impressive boats and ships on display.

This is a full scale replica of an 18th century cargo ship called the Amsterdam, built for the Dutch East India Company.

A full first day in Amsterdam! We have another day to spend here tomorrow before catching the night train to Prague. There we’ll stay 3 nights before beginning the bike trip.

Goedenacht from Amsterdam!