i took this picture last monday. ah, only now i realize that was yesterday. indeed, i took this picture yesterday, but somehow it seems ages ago... :) as you see, it was very sunny....
i guess most people know amsterdam has a lot of canals. 165 in total, some 60 miles of water, combined. there are also a lot of bikes, cars, houses, and not a lot of space. so... parking is often done right at the waterfront. unfortunately, its very important to always lock your bike to something (as i have written several times before). not only because someone might otherwise steal your bike.. every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bikes are fished out of the water!! im pretty sure most people dont have the habit of throwing their bikes into the water on purpose (i certainly dont have that desire), but someone else might just do it for you. here you can see a video of the piles of bikes coming out of the canals...
it also happens that cars get into the water. it is estimated that around 35 cars end up on the bottom of an amsterdam canal. they are parked at the edge as well, and having the car in reverse gear when expecting to go forward is sometimes all it takes to end up in the canal..... (this happened to one of tims colleagues. she got out fine but the car didnt... we dont need to park next to the water but just to be sure we did get an emergency hammer recently....)
