Thursday 15th May at Oyten

Hazards for the pedestrian in Amsterdam
We found ourselves continually at risk in Amsterdam while on the street. The typical Amsterdam road is complex. It may have two tram tracks down the middle - the nearer one has trams going to the right. Outside the tram tracks on either side is a single lane for ordinary vehicles - but taxis, police cars and the like also use the tram tracks. Outside the road lane is a cycle track on each side which may have cyclists going either way. Outside these are the pavements, also used by cyclists but mainly used as dumping grounds for household rubbish, gardens and, above all, bicycles in their thousands. The only reasonable place to walk is on the cycle path where you get shouted at. In canal streets where the canal replaces the tram life is  littlle more complicated as any car that cannot get down the street the right way, reverses back the wrong way at considerable speed so that it  is not trapped. Here the pavement is further obstructed by house entry steps, tables and chairs, the occasional sofa and advertising stands. The speed hump smake for an extra trip-hazard and of course the cyclist in either direction is probably texting with one hand at least.  Cyclists also cut corners at intersections using the pavements and weaving between the poor pedestrians.
Luckily it is possible to buy Belgian beer to reduce the pain and fear to reasonable proportions.

On the road Again
We left Amsterdam early today to drive to Oyten near Bremen, a matter of 230 miles. The Amsterdam rush hour was perfectly reasonable and the Dutch motorways quitr OK but, as always the German A1 was being reconstructed and down from 3 lanes to one in two places with tail backs of about 6 kilometres -very slow and stressful. We arrived in Oyten to found our little hotel had lost our booing but had a room for us anyway and a pleasant one at that. So we have settled down each with a rather boring Becks beer to snooze till supper. The weather has improved and it is sunny outside to our considerable pleasure.