Biking the Amstel

Prior to our case study with Niels, Eduardo, and Danbi, we went on a guided bike tour of the region we were to be studying. This bike tour was much more enjoyable than the first one because (A) we were not on bright yellow—oh those are without a doubt tourists—bikes and (B) we went out into the country, where people aren’t honking at you because of aforementioned bikes. The experience was valuable not just in being fun, but for getting a sense of how crazy these Dutch people must have been to settle here. The dykes on either side of the Amstel ‘river’ were keeping the water from flooding huge polders filled with cows and houses on either side. We learned that the settlers of this area came from Utrecht and reclaimed the land by harvesting peat for fuel and building canals and dykes. Amsterdam is the result of these people realizing that they could better protect themselves by banding together. Now that I think about it, isn’t that why all cities are founded? Well, I guess I should rephrase that question and ask: Isn’t that why all communities are founded, to provide a collected security. I think cities are founded because people find opportunity in this shared geographic space.