According to one of the travel guides the only thing in Amsterdam that is worse than the accumulated dog feces is the silent attack of thousands of bicycles.   Okay not thousands, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands.   Everyone rides a bike there.   This doesn’t take your smartest statistician to figure out.   One bike parking garage alone, filled to capacity, seemingly boasted that it was limited to 3000 bikes.

The streets are clogged with them all chained together in bicycle chaos.   Some hang over the many bridges and others simply fall into the canals.   One lofty tour guide reported to us that some 100,000 bicycles are stolen and then dumped into the 2500 miles of canals every year.

Bicycles don’t have motors.   Silently they come upon you at break neck speeds.   Often they carry children in baskets.   The whole family is out there to get about town.    Seemingly, no pedestrian is safe as the bicycles come at you from every direction.   Yours truly was nearly part of three accidents on the first day or two.   Then you become wise.   You either rent a bike yourself and become part of the assailants themselves or you simply walk along clinging to protective devices like trees.  It’s a tough job but I’d rather cross the street at 42^nd and Broadway in Manhattan than brave a side street in Amsterdam.