Friday, July 3, 2009

Bike rides on the coast....

It seems as though everyone rides bikes in Holland! We rented bikes one day so we could explore the town of Volendam and we even rode to Edam, the next town over. There are bike lanes everywhere!! It was quite surprising that helmets are NOT worn considering the number of bike riders. So, as weird and unsafe as it seemed, we too rode helmet free!




Everyone was ahead of me as we were taking a back road into Volendam.


Now we made it into town....such a cute little fishing village. The waterfront was to our right for most of the town and many stores and restaurants were to our left. The restaurants were nice because they would just slide the entire front wall over so everything as open. The tables would pour out onto the sidewalks and were the most popular places to sit!


We continued riding until the bike lane was on the waterfront. Colton spotted this in the water....scary! There was a beach not far from our sighting.


JC was checking out the beast in the water!


We just love the houses in this town! We walked to Volendam several times and found it interesting that we could walk and see into the houses. They were decorated like model homes except that there were people in them cooking, watching TV, and on the computer. We tried to walk and not look in, but it was just too irresistible! The houses are right on the road so we were just so close and couldn't help but look over. They were beautiful! We don't make a habit of peeping into houses:)


Look at the front window and you'll see Lauren on her bike and the waterfront.
Didn't realize her reflection was there until we got home!



Every once in a while there would be a house much lower than the others.
They had to step down a few steps to get to their door.


Evidently, being a passenger on a bike is VERY exhausting!



4 comments:

Pam said...

Okay - I would ride my bike more if I had a place as interesting as that to ride in! Those houses are too cute! You have the perfect mix of family photos and surroundings to really give a feel for the place and your love of it! (The sleeping passengers are adorable!)

Jennifer said...

I know...this place just MADE us want to ride bikes!

Tiffany said...

What a beautiful place, it doesn't even seem real. Kind of like a set for a movie. I really like the way they have the set up for the little kids to ride bikes. I like the little front carrier, they can see better that way then stuck behind you! Our kids always fall asleep on bike rides.

Jennifer said...

I didn't even think about it that way, but is soooo does look like a movie set! The bike seats were really cool. I told my husband I'd like to get one for our bikes, but he said it wouldn't attach the way it is set up....well it would, but we would have to have the expensive bikes and that's not happening any year soon:)

There were all kinds of kid carriers there....one was a wagon style that attached to the front of the bike. It had built in seat belts like the rear ones do...these were made of wood though!