Tin Pony took a trip to Amsterdam this spring to escape the ridiculous snow drifts and weird weather in the UK. The city of bikes is always worth a visit, even in unseasonably icy conditions, yes thats a frozen up canal with ducks thinking "swimming....nah not today, that water is cold !" That is true my Mallard friends, but spare a thought for the cycle-minded back home in Blighty.

One thing is apparent immediately in Holland, they know how to build roads with a lot of space to cycle, funnily enough it also seems like almost everybody cycles, funny that.

Home to an unbelievable food scene and some outstanding craft beer breweries, this is my kinda town, try the bitterballen and get some chips and make your way out to Brouwerij 't IJ a brewery under the windmill not too far from dutch city bike phenomenon Van Moof or pop into Craft & Draft after a ride round the VondelPark.

With the icy weather it was also great to see how many people got their skates out and headed for the Vondel Park. Skating is popular in Amsterdam, we were told by that amazing US commentary team for the winter olympics just earlier this year ...

"Why are they so good?’ you may be asking yourselves. Because skating is an important mode of transportation in a city like Amsterdam which sits at sea level. As you all know, it has lots of canals that can freeze in the winters. So, for as long as those canals have existed, the Dutch have skated on them to get from place to place, to race each other, and also to have fun." (NBC's Katie Couric, 2018)

https://on.mash.to/2InNHIg

What do you do if you don't have your own skates when the winds of winter come ? Well like always in life, you get your bike out ! (don't do this at home, these short people are in fact future olympic bike skating stars with years of experience and they might be ninjas).

Bikes 'N' Ice