I may be wrong, but I think when you rent a bike, they give you locks and chains. After all, it would be their bike that would be stolen.

Thank you, both for the interesting and helpful discussions and suggestions about sites to see.

Since we live in Southern California, where old towns and villages are rare, and green lush countryside just as rare, I'm sure we would be very happy to enjoy what you have available to see and visit. You would be surprised what small amount of both would make us very happy.

I have added the villages and towns you suggested to our list of highlights that we should try to visit and we will be sure to enjoy a pleasant day in the countryside. We are also looking forward to seeing Amsterdam's canals and roaming the side streets as well.

Thank you again for you kind help.

You're most welcome. Amsterdam is quite a nice place to spend a few days I think, there's something for everyone (and I mean everyone).

But it's still quite small compared to big cities in the rest of the world, so you're in the country quite quickly.

Just don't be put off by the mediocre service you are most likely to encounter at some places. It's a combination of many tourist and the general lack of great service attitude in the Netherlands....

You're welcome from me too. Your open mind is what encourages people to help, I think.

I hope you'll have a nice time. If you like, after your trip, send me a message about your experience. I would be interested to read it.

A much belated follow up on our trip to Amsterdam and our day-trip to the countryside. But first many thanks to everyone for your input and assistance.

We were in Amsterdam for about 6 days the end of April. We had a wonderful time. The scenery and sites were great...the weather was really pretty nice (except one day...which was nice for canal walking anyway) and the people were absolutely wonderful.

A few quick observations.

--We loved walking around the canals and many small side streets. Even the one day when it was rainy and cloudy, it added to the character.
--Even with Queen's Day preparations it wasn't too crowded or chaotic, at least where we were...and leaving the morning of Queen's Day via Centraal Station and Schipol was a breeze. We had a picnic in our canal-view B&B room on Queen's Day eve and enjoyed some of the party boats as they paraded by.
--We ended up staying with our original plan to rent a car for the day and easily visited flower fields near Lisse and Biensdorp, stopped in Haarlem to see the old town and Corrie ten Boon Museum (very moving) and then on to Zaandam Schans to see the old windmills (we found a great road just across the river for some wonderful sights). Driving in and out of Amsterdam was pretty easy since the rental car pick-up was near Centraal Station. Driving the countryside was pretty easy and gave us a chance to make many stops along the way to view the countryside and explore new sites along the way. The many recommendations to rent bikes were good ones, but we'll have to do that the next time.
--We had some very meals...pancake brunch and dinner, and dinner (twice) at a traditional old restaurant (t'Zwaanzig).
--We finally go used to walking around and looking out for bikes...only a couple of near-mishaps but the bikers were very understanding.
--We enjoyed some very good Dutch beers.
--We truly enjoyed the people we met...the owners of our B&B were delightful, people in shops and employees in restaurants were all very pleasant.
--We really liked Amsterdam a lot and would very much like to go back to explore the City and countryside even more. It is a wonderful destination.

I've taken the liberty of including my Flickr posts from the trip if anyone is interested in seeing my observations. I hope you can access this link.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/2137519...7633522692857/


Again, thank you to everyone for your helpful input.

Jack

Good to hear you had a great time.... Peak flower time as well.

The only thing that could have spoilt your visit would have been the weather. And it seems you got most of the good weather we had in about two months ;).

Glad you found it easy to drive about Amsterdam I'm doing sort of the same shortly , renting a car driving about .

Did you have a navigation system with the car and if you didn't how did you cope?

HI, just to be clear, I did not drive in Amsterdam proper, and likely would not do so on future trips. I firmly believe everyone's advice about walking or using mass transit in Amsterdam is absolutely the best advice.

We picked up our rental car at a hotel adjacent to the Centraal Station. That provided quick and easy access to major roadways leading out of and back into that location without having to venture into the main part of the city at all.

Driving in the countryside and even in cities like Haarlem were not a problem. The highway and roadway system is great, signage is very good and signs to parking structures pretty decent. I would not hesitate doing that again, especially if you want to explore different locations and sites like we did.

We did not have a navigation system. I had printed out some Google or Via Michelin maps of the specific sites we wanted to see along with general highway/roadway maps as well. It seemed to work for us. We got confused and turned around a few times, but that's part of the fun.

That would be my advice. I hope this clarification is helpful.

Actually, driving in Amsterdam is quite easy - I've done it a few times when working at remote sites at odd hours, and, as long as you recognise that bikes are king, and that you never win in an argument with a tram or a canal, and that you're likely to encounter these in your blind spot when you're turning, it's actually very well laid out. You have a core ring road, with loop routes off it, then a series of radial routes leading to the (motorway) ring.

(But I cannot stress enough - you give way to bikes. Always. And you lose priority when you turn. If there's a bike lane crossing your path - and there usually is if you're turning - they have right of way, and you will pretty much automatically be held responsible if you hit a cyclist. Which is as is should be, frankly...)

Parking, however, is a different story. Expensive and very limited. I'd not voluntarily choose to drive in the city (I'd much, much rather be on a bike), but it's perfectly fine at the times when you need to, for access elsewhere. Driving to get from one location in the city to another is useful only for out-of-hours stuff.

Your description of the city is quite correct. However, as someone who lives in the city centre and formerly used an auto to commute to work in another part of the country, it is not quite as easy as you may think.

The ring road is approximately 3-5kms from the city centre, depending on where you need to go. The routes from the motorway begin with a fairly clear path and other autos. As you drive closer to the centre, the way becomes less clear and the number of autos decreases, while the number of bikers and pedestrians increases sharply (btw, under local traffic laws, pedestrians have first priority, bikes second and autos third).

Once you are near the city centre, virtually all streets become one-way. However, streets in one direction will connect to streets in another direction. Going from point A to point B in or near the city centre is almost never in a straight line. The cross street near me goes west for two streets and east for one, for example.

Frankly, driving in the centre here is not for the faint-hearted. The streets here are lined with metal poles (locally called 'amsterdammertjes') like this: http://s3-media4.ak.yelpcdn.com/bpho...u7n1OP4g/l.jpg. This roadway is often shared with bikes. For people not used to driving in Amsterdam, unfortunately, this sometimes happens: http://bin.snmmd.nl/m/m1dz5ujafjrt.jpg


And remember that both bikers and pedestrians have the right of way over autos.

Parking in the city centre on the street currently costs €5 per hour. In order to cut down on pollution, the city is in the process of replacing some auto parking spaces with pedestrian and bike access and two major streets in the city will soon be converted to non-auto streets.

Amsterdam, like many European cities, was built long before the invention of the auto. While some large cities (Paris and Berlin, for example) were redesigned in the late 19th century (and again after the second world war), most smaller cities were not. The streets are still cobbled, medieval passages remain and, with EU clean air requirements, nothing is being done to make these cities more auto-friendly.

Are those Belgian plates on that car? ;)

It is certainly possible. (Though there are some Dutch plates that size.)

But, if it is, it is a good demonstration of my point that people not used to driving here might find a better way of getting around (not that there is any shortage of those: foot, bike, tram, bus, metro, train).

Although I had limited experience driving Amsterdam...in and out of the city the most direct way from an easily accessible site...I could not see myself driving in Amsterdam. And that's from someone who drives regularly on the LA Freeways and city streets and is comfortable driving in NYC and other major US cities and some European cities. In fact, I had quite a time maneuvering through the city on foot and keeping in mind that I had to avoid confrontations with bikes literally at every turn, which was an interesting experience. I'll happily walk or take mass transit...as should most who are unfamiliar with Amsterdam...for their own sake and that of others.

Very correct, jacknyoc.

Hopefully, to help others, here is an article by a famous American journalist on travelling in Amsterdam:

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/199...dutch-bicycles

I learned to drive on the hills of San Francisco. I've driven in most major American cities and all over North America on long distance routes. I wouldn't even dream of driving in Amsterdam! I pick up the car in Leiden (much cheaper than Schiphol) and we spend our time outside Amsterdam sightseeing via auto, then when we move to an Amsterdam hotel for that part of the trip, I turn the car in and get tram passes, which are far cheaper than trying to park in Mokkum.


p.s. Brugge is another less than fun place to drive. There I stashed the car in a garage for 3 days and rode a bike