The first thing that people told me when they found out I would be moving to the Netherlands was, "You have to get a bike." From every single person I talked to, and everything I looked up online, it was bound to happen. Having a bike is necessary here because it is the cheapest and fastest way to get around.
While families will usually have at least one car, cars are not used nearly as often as bikes. If you look down streets in the United States, you will never see a major road or street that doesn't have cars on it. But in the Netherlands, you will. I think the craziest thing that I saw when I moved here was that people would be riding their bikes to work in the morning, dressed in full suits, carrying a briefcase in one hand and biking one handed! Like, what?! People use their bikes the exact same way that we use cars in the United States. And don't think that just because someone has a lot of stuff with them, they won't get on a bike. They will. I've seen people biking carrying suitcases, washing machines and just about everything else! Biking is cheap, fast, and it's a great way to get exercise. I asked one of my Dutch friends how Dutch people eat so much bread and still stay in such good shape, and she said, "It's all the biking." And it really is!
