Netherlands: ingenuity and terror

Having sampled Swiss trains, driving and walking in Europe, Sona and I decided to explore the bus option. The journey involved crossing Belgium and getting to Amsterdam. We boarded the liner and enjoyed the sights as we traversed through Belgian landscape. After Antwerp, our bus meandered through the border town of Eindhoven, the birth place of the conglomerate called Phillips. 

The town got me thinking - the ingenuity of the little country. Small national icons that went on to reign supreme in the world (think Shell, Unilever, Phillips).  From use of pumps to drain water out of its cities to modern time leader in clean energy, the Dutch know how to lead on the innovation front.

We were woken out of our slumber by frantic activity and announcements in Dutch. Hurriedly, we picked up our belongings and got down the bus. As we were in the process of waking up, we figured that the place had little semblance to our intended destination - Amsterdam. Great snakes! We were at Utrecht!

Well, not much to write about the place; just that the largest cycle parking was visible (more on that phenomenon later); we spotted the station and purchased tickets for Amsterdam and reached by the evening.

Amsterdam - I can say I was not at all disappointed. My former image of a wannabe town marked with sleaze had to make way for a city with a rich history, freedom, indomitable spirit, creativity and its byproducts. 

In Amsterdam, though our recommendations range from the river tour, red light area, etc., we recommend that you explore as much as you can. We have a feeling that whatever museum, alley you walk into - you will not be disappointed.

Besides Amsterdam, the must visit place we recommend is Den Haag (The Hague). Its claim to fame is as host of the International Court of Justice and a major host of other UN offices.

The multilateral aspect aside, it has a beauty and spirit of its own. We made a beeline for the sea front where the winds from the North, having melted their share of ice from the Arctic met us with full ferocity.

But alas, our travel sojourns will make way for a more immediate problem that is plaguing our times. Ladies and gentlemen, I have to talk about terrorism and the Dutch connection.

Kindly note that terrorism has taken many names and faces. Some of them are: Al-qaida, Lashkar Taeba and Cycling.

The latter is the one whose origination and propagation may be attributed to Netherlands. Some statistics:

While you may be conned into an image of suave, environment friendly and healthy cyclists; deeper experience lifts this veil to identify the peril to your life that cyclists pose.

• These simple machines, at the hands of a well built European Meneer or Mejuffrouw can attain unimaginable speeds - posing grave danger to themselves and the innocent public in general
• 
  Picturize your careless Shubham walking around in search of the Heineken museum and poof - a cyclist just whisked by. A lazy turn to answer to Sona's voice just saved him from being knocked off
• He curls his arms by a couple of degrees and….. Swish….  A nano second's delay would have meant that his arm would have been ripped off by a speeding maniac
• Later in the evening - we saw a first - Drunken cyclists!! Later, there were high cyclists - connoisseurs of space cakes of Ams. While the police around the world does a good job to keep ineberiated motorists in check; I doubt if there is a law to protect us from such peril.
  

In Europe, I always drove with a dark cloud on my head. I was told that cyclists have the right to be reckless, but if I were to touch them in a car (even for no fault of my own), I had two options:

1. Escape and wait for the legal system to catch me eventually 

2. Get out of the car, burn my documents and head voluntarily to jail for a couple of decades

I am told that the end result is not very different in both the cases.

Note: With no other option in sight, the author has joined the movement and now cycles to work every day.