Travels

Well it’s the 6th of July and since the weather is holding fair we won’t waste it. Spent a little time trying to get the stubborn Dutch DVR to actually record the day’s Tour Stage….(it was me or it…..with enough cursing I won!)…and we left the apt.

We had made up our minds to explore the Albert CuypStraat Street Market which is about 2 kilometers from here…..just a brisk turn of the ankle!

[Note: Unbelievably, we took no photos this day…I’ll try to add some later…sorry]

Albert Cuyp also know as Aelbert Jacob Cuyp was a famous Dutch Landscape painter of the Baroque style during the 17th Century. His works were known for their fabulous attention to detail and perspective, (Cuyp was a superior draftsman), as well has his masterly treatment of light and atmospherics in his late afternoon scenes of the Dutch Countryside.

The Maas at Dordrecht - Albert Cuyp

So, as with practically any famous historical Dutch figure the city of Amsterdam named a street after him: Albert Cuypstraat.

The Street market began as an ad-hoc collection of street traders and pushcarts that quickly became so popular that in 1904 the city organized it as a market after which it was open only on Saturday evenings. That lasted until 1912 when under pressure from the citizenry, who know a good deal when they see one, the city administration announced that the Albert Cuypstraat Street Market would open six days a week.

Today there are more than 300 stalls on the closed-off street with vendors hawking everything from fresh fish to roasted chicken dripping on the spit to chic clothing. You’ll find vegetables for sale next to a bicycle shop which is next to a stall selling stroopwaffels (thin syrupy waffles…yum). A good place to spend a few hours and score some serious bargains.

BJ and I walked along like the tourists we are…..heads on swivels, trying to take everything in. We’ve discovered that we like to look for building adornments as they are often either beautifully intricate or at the very least entertaining. There are examples of virtually every know architecture represented in small portions of different buildings….a doric column here, a gargoyle there, a federalist styled frieze over there….it’s amazing.

We walked past Museumplein and made the corner onto Ruydaelstaat where we found ourselves in front of a little bike shop that I’d seen several times from the tram. Since we’d lately been shopping for bicycles I said, “Let’s stop in here and check it out”. BJ agreed and in we went.

Ciclo Rijwielen is a small hole-in-the-wall bike store that is so full of bikes, some for sale, many recently repaired and awaiting pickup and some that are just being parked for a while that there is only room for a single-file path through the store to the repair shop in the back.

The owner, who introduced himself as Paul asked if he could help. We explained our desire for a couple of bicycles and our intent that they be good city-bikes and not too expensive. He showed us a couple, quoted prices for them and asked if we’d like to try them. I explained that we were on our way to run a few errands but that I liked what we saw and promised to stop back later. “We shall see” he said dryly. We shook hands and took our leave.

As we walked the remaining few blocks to the street market we discussed the store, Paul and the bikes we’d seen. We agreed that the bikes looked pretty good, the prices were in line with our budget and we both felt that Paul was a straight-shooter. We both felt pretty good.

Arriving at the AlbertCuypStraat market we suddenly realized how BIG the place is. I think I counted three street intersections as we walked along….so about 4 blocks of stalls, the stick-and-brick stores behind them, people, pets, bicycles, performers, smells, sounds, textures, colors…..it is major sensory overload!

We wandered, gawked and laughed for a couple of hours, bought a couple pairs of sunglasses…hers Dior knockoffs, mine CAS (cheap assed sunglasses)….exactly what we wanted and at a price of €9 for both!
Eventually we’d had enough, noted that we were becoming a little sunburned and decided that we’d have lunch at home.

On the way back we did, of course, pass again by Paul’s bike shop. BJ asked if I still though the bikes were a good deal…I replied in the affirmative and we walked in the door. Paul looked up with an expression of surprise from a repair in the back shop. He wiped his hands and came out front. “I did say we’d be back”, I said, smiling. “Could we try those bikes now?”

Paul dug out bike after bike which we dutifully test-rode up and down the street in front of the shop. We eventually settled on two bikes with ‘girls frames’ (preferred because it’s easier to carry stuff on a girls frame): a Gazelle 7-speed and a Union 3-speed. Paul checked them over and aired the tires to my preference (which is much harder than the Dutch prefer….they want nice soft tires…I like mine nearly rock-hard). He then sold us a couple of locking chains the likes of which are generally used to tow bulldozers (no kidding, the links are two inches long, 3/8” diameter, case-hardened steel!) and warned us to always lock the bikes to something solid as bike theft is rampant in the city. These, he announced proudly are proper Dutch city-bikes. They are not too flashy, they have racks, they have lights, they have hub brakes….in short, they will last forever.

We paid for the bikes (well, the company paid for the bikes since we will leave them here for the next company personnel who come in), and got ready to ride home. Paul said, “If you decide they aren’t the right ones, bring them back anytime in the next 30 days and we’ll find a different one for you. Nobody really knows until they’ve ridden them for a couple of weeks.”

We thought that was only just a really groovy (who says ‘groovy’ anymore?) policy and we told him so. He then went on to explain that we were also entitled to free maintenance for a year! We shook hands, thanked him very kindly and headed off on our well-used Proper Dutch City-Bikes. Very cool!

There is a bike-parking garage at the north end of BeethovenStraat right next to the Openbare Bibliotheek (public library) where we rented two spaces for €8 each per month. We locked up our bikes and made the 10 minute walk back to the apartment. On the way we picked up a bottle of wine and some lunch from the downstairs deli.

We drank the wine and ate the food while we watched a recording of that days Tour de France stage and we felt that it was a fitting way to celebrate our bikes!