Biking Culture

crash
Originally uploaded by cutjas

Yes, now that I have been in The Netherlands (or as the dutch say Nederland, subtle, but different; notice the "d" instead of the english "th" a very peculiar distinction. The "d" is believed by many scholars to have originated from the the ancient dutch culture located near the, then small village of Gouda (pronounced "Hauda" the rough "H" sound is believed to have originated from the the more ancient tribe of dutch ancestors near, the modern city of Amsterdam (pronounced "Amsterdam") the "H," legend has it was at one point combined with up to three other letters, "z" "x" and "3," during the victorian period they were combined to distinguish native speakers and confuse locate peasants) once the "H" was firmly established in its pronunciation the once famous and now outcast dutch poet/beggar/nobleman/self-made linguist, Karl von Liker put forth a bold pronunciation of "Nederlands" with the "d" as the central emphasis of this name. Karl von Liker was immediately executed by the king Ron von Liker (no relation, but were from the same country), it was unclear the real motive of the execution, but it might have been due to the fact that Kind Ron von Liker had a slight lisp in his speech and found the "th" pronunciation much easier) for about two weeks, I thought I was well versed enough to comment on dutch bike culture.

Its nuts!! Like the photo we see above (which I took one day on my way home from work. The dutch are very serious about their biking, even to and from work. This was a particular bad crash, but sadly, an all to common sight on the hard streets of Den Haag. I am learning the do's and don't's of biking here. For instance, if and little old lady is biking straight at you, she is not going to stop! I learned that lesson the hard way, which leads me to the great dutch health care system...