The bike route

As soon as we got off our bikes at the school yard, I realized Sterling had left his backpack, lunch, and gymclothes at home. My first instinct was to say : sorry, I guess you;ll be hungry. However, as his predicament of sitting out at gym and going through class hungry, my heart softened, and I decided that the extra 25 minutes would be a good excuse for documenting my surrounding on our every day commute

Disclaimer: these are all taken from my bike, and not by any means artistic photographs. However, I think they give a good portayal of my surroundings

In front of my house

Bikers often get their own bike path, called a fietspad. Bike paths are distinct by their red color. If there's not enough space for a completely separate path, a piece on the side of the road will be painted red.

Round-abouts have become much more common since I left in 1998. The first half mile stretch to school has 3 round-abouts on it.

Fietspaden are shared by walkers, bicyclists, and moped riders

Because of zoning laws, housing developments are very dense, with small pieces of nature in between. We never leave Zoetermeer on the way to school, but still get to ride past sheep

Age doesn't stop the Dutch from riding

Most single family homes are connected to other homes. They are called "rijtjes huizen" (row homes). In the USA people would maybe call them townhomes, but in my opinion town homes are different. I'm not sure why, or how, but they are.

In Holland they seem to like interesting architecture and crazy roof pitches

soccer fields are important!

I love that we get to ride over this bridge every day. The nice thing about riding a bike is, that you can usually go a much shorter route.

We pass my dad's house every time, and when the kids see this car, they know he is home and want to visit. It's a little surreal that I ride my bike right past his house, twice a day.

Bikers often have the right of way. The squigly line shows the cars to slow down. The triangles show to yield to the bikes, and the speed bumps are thrown in for good measure.

The kids' school. For some reason all the elementary schools are painted this same color blue.
Sterling was very happy that I brought him his lunch and gym clothes
I snuck this picture of Ginger from outside through the window. She never even saw me
One of Joe's biggest pet peeves is that Dutch bathrooms often only have cold water, and also no soap. How are kids supposed to get their germy hands clean when all they have is cold water?
This is in the schoolyard, where the kids learn young how the yield signs work.
On the way home, Emma snuck up on me. All of a sudden she was just there. So there you have it. That's the route I take twice a day. About 6 miles total, 40-50 minutes depending on my speed.