Bikes in Holland

Holland is a flat land. There is apparently one hill but otherwise it is all flat. Damian describes it as one big drain. Bikes are an institution. Everyone rides. From birth you ride with your mum or dad. If you have 2 children close in age you get a bike like this. You then teach your kid to ride as early as possible. hey yhen can ride to school which they do rain hail or snow. Most bikes are old and teenages wouldn't be seen dead on a new flashy bike. Old rusty bikes are de riguer for teenagers. Young girls will be riding along talking on the mobile dinking a friend. Very few of those pesky 50cc scooters thank heavens. Middle age woman ride fully laden with groceries. You can tell the tourists. They're the ones wearing Lycra and bike helmets. The odd guy training in lycra will wear a helmet but its a bit of a joke training on flat terrain on a bike path. They cant train anywhere else. Its actually illegal to ride off a bike path and the motorists will soon tell you"verboden, verboden!!" How do I know? I was trying to cross a waterway and attempted to via a freeway on ramp. Told off by several motorists. Fine apparently is heavy. Shopping centres and stations have bike racks and lockups the size of which is indescribable. The bike paths are everywhere. You dont generally have to pick a small road on the map as you would do in other countries to avoid heavy traffic as all roads of a certain size appear to have paths with signage and lights. Smaller roads have a well demarcated bike lane besides. AND BIKES HAVE RIGHT OF WAY OVER TRAFFIC!!