Amsterdam: bike ride

Dad and I rented some bikes and went for a five hour bike ride around the countryside. Amsterdam is the bike capital of the world, there are even stop lights for bike traffic. It's a bit hectic in the city when you're biking, but once you reach the open spaces of the countryside it's unreal how beautiful and wide open it becomes. Imagine children playing in canals, tugging themselves across to the other side with a rope that sits in the water and is long enough to sink to the canal floor, allowing little boats to go through, when not in use. The little houses that line the canals are so quaint and cute. I could envision myself with a wooden cutting board in the kitchen of one of them, slicing up green peppers and cooking...whatever the dutch cook.
We came upon a church in a little town where people took their unwanted items to the trash can in old, creaky, wooden wagons with steel handle pulls. We took turns going to the top and looking out at world (to keep our bikes and stuff from being stolen.)