I’ve just returned back from my first trip to the Netherlands with the CELLO for the Fietsvakantiebeurs, a two day cycle touring specific show. It was very inspiring to see such enthusiasm for cycle touring and traveling products and the CELLO was very well received.
While in the Netherlands, I had a chance to explore both by foot and on bike. I was amazing to experience how cycling is integrated into everyday life there. It all begins with an incredible infrastructure of bike paths that go down nearly every street with their own traffic lights. There are excellent facilities for bike parking and bike rentals. Excellent bike maps are available to guide you through the city and countryside. The majority of bikes are rugged hub geared city bikes, nothing fancy but long-lasting easy to ride bikes for getting around the city. Everyone rides bikes as well from business men, to moms with 2-3 kids on board to school children. From an American perspective it was quite enlightening to see and anyone involved with developing cycling infrastructure in the US needs to take a trip.