Amsterdam, City of Bicycles

Amsterdam 

Amsterdam is a very dynamic and charming city. It was our first visit to the Netherlands and its capital was a wonderful two days for us. The city was an extension to a Viking River Cruise and we are so glad we were able to spend some time in this iconic city.  Amsterdam is most widely-known for windmills, canals, tulips, cheese, and the Dutch Masters.  I think it should also be known for bicycles!

Amsterdam’s people 

The people we encountered were friendly and welcoming.  However, in one way, they are different from people from the United States and other countries we have visited.  They have more than a million bikes in the city, more than one for each person and it is their principal form of transportation.  The people were lean and are undoubtedly more fit than those with more passive transportation.

Many families do not own a car.  The streets are so narrow and the parking so limited that it makes car ownership undesirable.  They do, however, have access to cars.  An app identifies nearby cars and enables access to them.  They just park it in their final destination.  Our local guide, a young married woman with a small child shared this information.  They did not own a car.

However, this means that during cold and rain, it’s just them and a bicycle!  Daytime temperatures in January are in the low 40s and the average is low 30s at night.  They are a hearty bunch!

Consequently, bikes were everywhere, as were wide bike lanes.  The city also has a tram system that some of our fellow travelers used.  We used Uber while there and it worked well.  Our Uber driver had a hybrid and he told us all taxis must be all electric in 2025.

An Amsterdam side street

Our Hotel

 Hotel Okura in Amsterdam is a five star hotel and very luxurious.  We do not normally travel in such style.  A canal runs on the right of it and many nice restaurants are within walking distance.  The hotel has a swimming pool, spa,  and several restaurants.   I believe a couple of them have Michelin stars.  

Hotel Okura, Amsterdam
Hotel Okura

Our room was comfortable and quite nice.  The unbelievable breakfast buffet, which was included, was the best part of the hotel.  Everything imaginable was on it, including Japanese items. The staff were especially attentive. I will remember those two breakfasts for many years to come. 

Our room on the 14th floor

Our room on the fourteenth floor had a great view of one of the canals and a part of the city.

View of Amsterdam canal
View from our room of Amstelkanaal

Amsterdam Cuisine 

Though jet-lagged, we ventured out on our first day to an Italian restaurant, Insieme Ristorante, near our hotel.   According to our waiter, the owner is from Sardinia and the food was authentic Italian.   

A delicious dinner at Insieme Ristorante

I ordered the special, though having no idea what to expect.  Gnocchi with a beet sauce, cheese, and crispy tomato.  The presentation was attractive and the dish was so delicious.  It was also served with beautifully-presented bread.

I also ordered the recommended wine, Primitivo Di Manduria, a 1922 Le Vigne Di Sammarco.  It was on of the best red wines I have ever tasted.   I have looked for it since arriving home, but haven’t located the exact wine in that year.  

Dessert was tiramisu, which is a specialty of the restaurant.  I love fancy food, but my husband is more a big steak man.  Overall, this meal was one of my most memorable.

Gnocchi with beet sauce

Tour of Amsterdam 

Viking provided a local guide for a two-hour tour of the city.   We took an extensive walk of the city and she shared details of her life in Amsterdam, the city’s culture, history, and architecture.  

Interesting Sites

The Heineken Brewery is located in Amsterdam.  We had several of its beers while on our trip, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to tour the facility.

Heineken Brewery

A street market was on our tour.  The dragon fruit drew my eye because it is so colorful.  I didn’t stop to try the fruit though.

Colorful Dragon Fruit in the local market

Amsterdamers were on almost every street.   Each has the symbol of Amsterdam on it, three Xs.  The Xs represent the threats to old Amsterdam:  fire, flood, and disease.

Amsterdamer

We passed the building below on our tour. I loved the unique look of this art gallery.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go inside

Art Gallery


Our guide informed us that “Coffee” shops whose signs were in English also sell cannabis products.   The city “tolerates”  those soft drugs.  

There were many small shops on our walking tour.  The shop in the photo below sells a particular kind of fish that is eaten by hand.  The girl in the photo is wearing the traditional Dutch clothing.   The image was compelling.

Classic Dutch attire and method for eating a particular kind of fish

Amsterdam Canals

Amsterdam has three 17th century canals:  Gentleman’s (Henrengracht), Prince’s  (Prisengracht) , Emperor’s (Keizersgracht).   Bikes and cars often fall into the canals:  over 12,000 bikes and an average of 35 cars are pulled from the canals each year.

Below is a shot of the  Singelgracht, an outer canal designed for defense and water maintenance.  It served as a moat to medieval Amsterdam from 1480 to 1585 when the city expanded beyond it.  So, it was then no longer a defensive canal.

Amsterdam Singel canal
Singelgracht Canal in Amsterdam

National Museum 

The Rijksmuseum is a gorgeous structure.  It is the national museum of the Netherlands.  It was founded in 1798 and it covers 800 years of Dutch history and the Dutch masters including Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh.  I am very sad that our time and energy did not include a visit to the interior.  But, we enjoyed the exterior, which was built starting in 1876.

The Rijksmuseum

Below is a park behind the museum.  This area was where our tour ended and we both were very tired.  We shared a water with some friends from the Viking tour there.  It was so good to sit down!

Park behind the Rijksmuseum

A Canal Ride

To rest after our tour, we took a canal ride.  Our guide recommended this company.  It was relatively inexpensive and allowed us to see more of the city.  The ride included recorded information about landmarks along the way.   

Our canal boat

The original tower below was built in 1516 as part of a defensive wall around Amsterdam.  The decorative part at the top was an addition in 1606. So much history in this city!

Ancient Montelbannstoren

Moreover, the buildings in Amsterdam are very narrow with multiple floors.  The date they were built is displayed on the older buildings, like the 1590 date on the building below.

Note the date of the building in the center

Anne Frank House

Tickets to the Anne Frank house had to be purchased weeks ahead.  Tickets become available on a specific day for the following couple of weeks.  I set my clock for the middle of the night on the date the tickets dropped and snagged an afternoon entry time for our full day in Amsterdam.  The photo below is the front of the house.

Anne Frank House in Amsterdam
Front of the House

Anne and her family had been in hiding for two years when the Gestapo discovered them.  Afterwards, Anne and her sister, Margot, died in a concentration camp and her mother died in Auschwitz.  Only her father survived the captivity.  He discovered her diary which was kept during their time in the attic and it was later published.  The diary is believed to be most read book in the world, second only to the Bible.


Amsterdam in Conclusion 

Because we crammed a lot of activities during our short stay, it was a quite exhausting.  Overall though, our two days in Amsterdam were outstanding.  I really wish I could return so we could see more of it at a leisurely pace.

We also traveled to the United Kingdom in 2019 and if interested in that experience, see Edinburgh, United Kingdom Summer Tour.

Retired Couple in Amsterdam

 

Tongue Weight–A Cautionary Tale

Our T@G is very lightweight and we pull it with mid-sized SUV, so we did not anticipate any towing issues. Our solution for hauling bikes created an issue related to tongue weight. Our earlier post, Bikes and Teardrop Camping–Our Solution, has been modified to include this new information. While what we originally had did not work, changing to a different receiver has been confirmed by E-Trailer to do the job!

We have hauled bikes with our teardrop by using a dual receiver.  It enabled us to put a bike rack on the back of our SUV.  However, we did not fully understand the impact on the tongue weight of our vehicle.

Bikes Towed with our Teardrop

Our Initial Understanding

When we ordered the bike rack, a customer service rep at E-Trailer explained that our dual hitch was splitting the towing capacity of the dual hitch into two amounts, each component one half of the capacity of the hitch.

Our dual hitch has a capacity of 400 lbs, so each component would have a capacity of 200 lbs.  Our trailer’s tongue weight is 160 lbs with LP and battery (less than 200 lbs) and our bike rack plus bikes weighed 100 lbs (again less than 200 lbs).

We also considered the capacity of our towing vehicle, which is 350 lbs.  One half of 350 is 175 lbs and as this is under the weight of our trailer for one component and the bikes for the other, we thought we were okay.

What we did not initially understand is that by using a dual hitch, the overall capacity of our towing vehicle was reduced.  My husband ordered the hitch on-line and was not aware of the impact of the hitch on tongue weight.   This left our towing vehicle with a capacity of 175 lbs and the tongue weight of our towing was 240 lbs.

Fortunately, we received feedback from members of camping groups on Facebook who are more knowledgeable than we and they alerted us to this problem.  However, because of the multiple things to consider, we were quite confused.

Dual Hitch Considerations

As I understand it now, if using a dual hitch, you have to compare the tongue weight of what you are hauling against two separate limitations.

1) The tongue weight capacity of the tow vehicle, reduced by 50% because the dual hitch is used.  In our case, this was 175 lbs.  Our total tongue weight was 240 lbs, and we had a real problem here.

2) The tongue weight of the dual hitch.  Our hitch has a tongue weight capacity of 400 lbs, with 200 lbs for each half.  At 160 for the trailer and 100 for the bikes, we did not have an issue with the hitch.

Because our SUV has a lower tongue weight capacity, it is the capacity that  must be used when determining our hauling weight.

Our Results

We hauled our bikes on two camping trips that were relatively close to home.  The car handled well and there did not appear to be problems with the towing.  However, we had difficulty getting the leveling wheel off and on.   Also, the back tires on our SUV developed cupping. We had to replace our tires on the back sooner than we needed to replace the front tires.  We do not know that the excess tongue weight caused the tire issue.  However, we think it is the likely reason.

Now the good news!  I was communicating earlier with James Phipps, who is in a couple of teardrop groups on Facebook.  James and I communicated quite extensively about his concerns and he posed a question to E-Trailer to confirm his theory.  They confirmed that he was correct regarding the tongue weight issue but also offered two solutions that should be viable.  The response E-Trailer sent to James is below.

We could haul our bikes in much the same manner as we have in the past without exceeding tongue weight capacity.  We should just use a multipurpose ball mount instead of the dual hitch extender.

I would never have guessed that such a simple change could make such a difference.  If we were to use option 1 below, we would have a tongue weight of approximately 260 lbs and a capacity of our original 350 lbs. It would be well within our capacity.  Thank  you James for this information!

Options for hauling bikes