Not everyone can say this.  Nor would they want to!  We rented bikes today for a tour of the countryside outside of Amsterdam.  We were on the heaviest city bikes I’ve ever ridden…they make beach cruisers seem light! Someone got a flat about 10 minutes in, and I got a good picture of Jonathan trying to help fix it (turns out the tour guide did not have the right equipment to change a flat).

The tour was very nice as the countryside is really beautiful.  It is very green with lots of water around, and the sheep, horses and cattle graze without fences. And the weather was perfect – sunny and around 65 degrees with no rain!

So how did my bike end up in a canal?  We stopped for lunch at an adorable little town and we were instructed to park our bikes together on the side of the road.  There were 15 gigantic bikes trying to find space in a small area next to the canal.  My bike was closest to the canal and got bumped while another guy was trying to lock his.  We watched in horror as it slid down the side of the hill into the canal.  Thankfully it wasn’t deep and we were able to retrieve it fairly easily.  Below is the picture of the aftermath – notice all of the mud on the wheels!!

I had to to ask if this had ever happened before and of course it hadn’t.  Makes for a good (funny) memory.  Jonathan took his bike computer and we covered about 14 miles in 1.5 hours – we were really flying! 🙂

Yesterday we celebrated our 6th anniversary.  We toured the Rijks Museum and the Van Gogh museum, had a late lunch, then took a long nap while watching the Tour de France.  We then had a terrific dinner at Bridges, followed by a late night canal tour by boat.  Tomorrow we leave for home!