Sprinter

Staying in a budget hotel next to Sloterdijk station, we made full use of the excellent public transport network in the Netherlands yesterday, riding back and forth with the yellow Sprinter trains for a couple of euros each way. Once at Amsterdam Centraal, we got to see the new £65 million underwater bicycle parking garage with room for 7,000 bikes, which shows what is possible if a city dares to think beyond the automobile-centric paradigm.

With its many bike lanes and waterways, Amsterdam is one of the loveliest cities in Europe to go for a stroll, and we sure did, stopping for coffee at Lot61 which is right up there with Sydney and Malta. Repeatedly, the streets reminded me of when I ran my first road marathon here in 2018 and I could tell that Anna got inspired.