A Dutch bike ride in Richmond! (You can do it too!)
A Dutch bike ride in Richmond! (You can do it too!)

Since we’re talking transportation and Olympics this month: did you know you can ride a Dutch bike in Richmond during the Games?
Holland’s national railway has sent 400 Dutch rental bicycles over to Richmond, which will be free for use by the public, athletes, and the staff of Holland Heineken House during the Games. (Holland Heineken House is the enormous official Dutch pavilion in Richmond – here’s a Vancouver Sun article about it!)
I was lucky enough to ride one of the bikes last Saturday, February 6, when the bikes debuted in a public bike ride. A huge number of Metro Vancouver’s Dutch residents turned out to claim a bike and ride it along the new Richmond bike trail near the Olympic Oval. Everyone wore orange vests, the national Dutch colour! Here’s a couple of photos.




And in case you are curious, here is the bike route that we took. The RCMP bike patrol helped stop traffic and keep us all going safely!






Plus, here is a video done by the website OranjeinVancouver.com, a Dutch blog about the Vancouver Olympics and Holland! There were some reporters from Dutch media there too, so who knows how far this bike ride was seen :)
I must add that after the bike ride, we were treated to hot chocolate and stroopwafels, delicious Dutch biscuits with caramel-like syrup in the middle. I hope they’ve got more stroopwafels for you to try down at Holland House — they were so good!
What did you think of this story?
Hello,
I stopped by the Richmond OZone yesterday (Sunday February 14, 2010) and was advised that the bikes are now only available to those with a Dutch passport. So sad. :(
Did the Dutch win a gold medal that day? If so, I hear it is customary for a visiting country house make their services exclusive to their national visitors to celebrate the day’s accomplishment.
[…] also saw these two Dutch bikes from Holland Heineken House parked in the Bridgeport Station bike rack! Looks like somebody is certainly getting around town […]
do you know what they ar gonna do with the bikes when the olympics ar over? if possiable i would like to buy one? Brad
Brad:
They are shipping all but 20 of the bikes back to the Netherlands — there was some kerfuffle with import taxes and the like. The 20 remaining bikes are being donated to a local Richmond charity (I think: they’re being donated to somebody, at the very least).