The Travel Chica

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Lost in Amsterdam

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I have been in Amsterdam for three days, and while I fell in love immediately, I was also a little frustrated.

I have never been so lost in all of my life.

 

When I arrived on a Sunday morning, I immediately set out on a bike from my Oud West apartment rental to go to the tourism office across from Centraal  Station to pick up my iAmsterdam City Card and start exploring.

I was so excited to ride a bike in Amsterdam.

 

I mean, it’s sort of my thing… I don’t own a car and try to commute mostly by bike. And Amsterdam is the bicycling capital of the world. This is meant to be, right?

 

Well, it’s just not that easy to show up in Amsterdam and hop on a bike.

Even though there are bike lanes, traffic is confusing.

There are different signals for bikers, and it doesn’t seem that most bikers follow them. The streets are busy with pedestrians, cyclists, cars, trams, buses. There is just a lot going on.

 

The worst part about bicycling in Amsterdam are the motor scooters in the bike lanes. Scared the shit out of me the first time one passed me (and it still does every time).

Beyond the traffic, navigation is quite tricky.

I was good getting downtown to the tourism office, but once I tried to find anything else, I proceeded to get more lost than I have ever been in my life.

There is no grid system. Streets wind in all directions.

A street may be very narrow, only for bicycles and pedestrians, so it is easy to miss a turn.

Everything is actually quite close together in Amsterdam, and when on a bike, it is easy to pass the street you are looking for (also because it has 20 letters in it and you have no idea how to pronounce it, so it is difficult to memorize your route).

I was constantly getting off the bike to look at the map only to realize I was well past the street I needed to turn on. At one point, I discovered I was on the complete opposite side of the Centrum from where I thought I was.

While I wasn’t the most efficient in my exploring the first day, I did (unintentionally) see a lot of Amsterdam.

After three days in Amsterdam, I think I’ve learned a lot about how to bike in this city, and I am even starting to remember some of my routes.  And if I happen to pass my turn, it’s no big deal.  Luckily, I’m on vacation and have all the time in the world.

And really, isn’t one of the joys of travel getting lost in a new city?

Comments

  1. Interesting to read of your cycling experience. Amsterdam is indeed full of cyclists but I can understand how scared you’d be of people on scooters and the strange road signs and rules.

    Whilst I’ve never cycled in The Netherlands I have driven many times and can often become quite confused. In towns north of Amsterdam I’ve often slammed on the brakes as a cyclist suddenly pulls out from the cycle path onto the main road. It seems that they legitimately have right of way but it still throws me at times.

    I’m often confused by road signs and driving rules too. I’ve often have vehicles pull straight out of what I believe to be a side road only for locals to tell me that I need to give way, didn’t I see the weird yellow sign?

    Thankfully I’ve never had an accident in The Netherlands, not yet anyway.

    I hope that you enjoy the rest of your time in the city of Tulips.
    The Guy recently posted..Music Festivals In Yorkshire

  5. This made me laugh.

    You have to look at Amsterdam like a spider web… because that’s how the streets & canals are laid out. And (on foot) I would also figure out my route like this:

    1) Go over three streets.
    2) Turn right and go away from the city center 4 streets.
    3) Take a left, and it should be in the middle of the block.

    The trick was usually were:
    -Going Away From Town- curve along in an orbit with the city center as the nucleus and THEN go away from town.
    -Coming IN Towards Town- come in as far as possible first, and then go along the inner orbit.

    But on foot, it’s more difficult to miss tiny streets. Glad you didn’t get hit by anything and were able to write this post.

    😉

  7. Oh gosh – it IS really confusing, isn’t it? John is always in charge when we go there because every street looks the same to me. The canals throw everything off. I’ve been there five or six times and just started to get a sense of direction the last time we were there.

  10. That scooter going past and your comment made me laugh, I can just imagine how much it must have made you jump! I had a similar fright on the periphique around Toulouse, I was actually driving a little open top sports car and needed to turn off. Struggling to get across from lane to another I was a little slow, so the driver of the lorry behind me decided to lean on his horn. I nearly had to go and buy new trousers! People reading this may be amused by this, but at the time I would have happily choked the driver of the lorry if I could have gotten to him. I have calmed down now though and the moral of the story, I guess, is when travelling in Europe expect the unexpected.

  11. I also had this experience. I was perplexed that everything comes back to the right hand side, 480 and 270. You have to go along and beside back and forth two times each and always take a basket because you’ll need to put your bag and map in it. I had to review my map many times also. I tried a maps app but this was too confusing. Thankfully I made it to the ferry as I felt I would be cycling back and forth a lot even though it was so small. I thought I would cycle forever but I ended up back home for sleep on only a few hours. How time flies!

  12. A few days ago I’ve rented a scooter in Amsterdam and was that guy on a scooter in the bike lane :) The streets are narrow and it’s actually enough space only for one car and traffic is slow. Anyway, I’ve visited many places out of the city, windmills and even get to the beach, so scooter is also a good option when you are travelling to Amsterdam. I rented from https://bikesbooking.com and have a discount code just in case someone need it, let me know. they have bike rental too. Cheers!

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