Cycling as transportation

This is how you can get time on the bike if you're busy. Holland is both an excellent place for this, and a bad one. It's good because it's extremely bike-friendly, with lots of bike paths--not just alongside major roads, but also all by themselves, away from the cars, out in the country or alongside waterways. Earlier this week I rode into Amsterdam from our new (old) hometown of Nederhorst den Berg for the first time. It was on my brother's three speed city bike (heavy, fat tires, with the seat a little too low, and not enough gears), wearing my regular street clothes, and it was a wet, windy day. All the way to my building in the city it must be about 15 miles, which took me about an hour each way. The route was the good part, aside from the fact that I got two hours on the bike: along the Vecht river and through the fields to Weesp, and from there on a bikes-only path straight to Amsterdam along the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal (a small "climb" along the way as you get across on a bike lane they built when the built a new railroad bridge a few years back--imagine that: when you build a piece of traffic infrastructure, you also accomodate bikes). You basically reach the city at the edge of the old eastern dock area (transformed during my time in the States into a cool-looking residential neighborhood), and there you're less than two miles from the Central train station. Even once you're within Amsterdam city limits, there are hardly any stops (at least no lights or other obstacles I can't get around), so it's just a nice, mostly traffic-free, hour-long ride. I did get wet on the way home, but wait until the old green/yellow Trek gets here, and I'll do it in 45 minutes. The next day, I got to pick up my mom's car, because she's going on a short vacation (on her bike, of course [it's actually her first cycling vacation in a long, long time]). She lives about 30 miles away, in the newest new land, ("polder") we have here. Her town, Zeewolde, was founded about 25 years ago. As I took the bike out, there was a intense but short rain shower, but after it passed I made it over to her house without getting rained on (roads were mostly wet, though, and it was a good thing I had brought my little clip-on fender). Even though I was riding the Klein in my IS-Corp outfit, I didn't push it, as it was early in the morning and a fairly short ride. But again, pretty country roads and paths, including a long bike path along the Gooimeer. Tailwind to boot, and I just beat the next shower to my mom's, averaging just under 20 m/h. It's not racing, but it's certainly riding.