Netherlands Diary 13 – Dutch Wonders

Hasn’t been a lot on bikes in this diary – and that might be because one quickly gets used to their ubiquity thoughout the Netherlands.  Even in the Motordom-designed parts of the exurbs, there are bike routes everywhere.  And so I didn’t see much that was extraordinary, at least by the standards of a country where a typical street looks like this:

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But I did miss something that I knew could have been a highlight of the trip: the restored Rijksmuseum,  ‘Museum of the Netherlands,’ just re-opened after a ten-year renovation.  But the line-ups were long and my time short.  And there was nothing there that I associated with transportation, logistics or, for that matter, bicycles.
Turns out I was wrong.
Coincidentally, Jonathan Maus of bikeportland had been visiting Amsterdam in April, and staying right across from the Rijksmuseum.  Here’s his story:

One night I went on a walk and just by chance happened to see people riding underneath this amazing, palatial structure. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a designated bicycle path. My first thought was, “Oh my god!” And then I thought, “How come I’ve never heard of this before!?”
I stood, jaw-dropped and took it in. Then I pulled out my camera.

…  there was quite a controversy about whether or not to allow this level of bicycle access. The architect and museum director didn’t want it, insisting that the presence of bicycles and their riders would detract from the deep cultural significance of the museum.
According to a local source, one of the lead advocates pushing for the bike path, a woman named Marjolein de Lange, ultimately convinced the powers-that-be that bicycles belonged. Her winning argument? Bicycles are also a significant part of Dutch culture.

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More of Jonathan’s great pics here, along with shots and an explanation of what he considers another Wonder of the (Bicycle) World: the Hovenring.
Meanwhile, I was put up in a hotel on the north side of the Amsterdam region, in an historic suburb called Zaandam, which as it happens had just seen the completion of a redevelopment next to its train station that included this, um, wonder:

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It opened in 2010 to considerable comment that continues still.  Here’s a piece from The Guardian:.

Can this be real? I’m in Zaandam, near Amsterdam, standing in front of a hotel that looks like a pileup of traditional Dutch houses, all grafted together in bright greens and blues, their pediments, gables, windows and roofs pulling and pushing at my eyes.
My mind is not, however, playing tricks on me. And no, this is not an April Fool. This is the Hotel Inntel Zaandam, a madcap fairytale of a building. …
“I didn’t set out to shock,” says Wilfried van Winden, chief architect of WAM, the Delft-based practice behind it. “But this is, of course, an outspoken building. And the language it speaks is the architectural language of Zaanstad. It makes a big statement, sure, but the building is not an imposition – it belongs here.”
All the facades you see, explains the architect, are based on traditional Zaanstad houses (right). “From a stately notary’s dwelling,” he says, “to workers’ cottages.” Van Winden’s favourite is a re-creation, high up, of a blue house that features in a work by Claude Monet, painted during a trip to Zaandam.

Sorry, it’s kitsch, and it won’t age well – but the rooms are cool (mine had a sauna built in).
As part of a larger renewal plan for the centre of Zaandam (article here), with a canal down the centre, it’s effectively an anchor for an outdoor mall.

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Because many of the original buildings have been retained and repurposed, Zaandam Centrum offers an interesting case-study in how to combine elements of suburbia (big boxes, the arterial roads and parking structures) with historic preservation, rail service, and the retention of a traditional centre.

For that it’s worth the kitsch.

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Not that kitsch has ever been a problem with a country that markets itself like the Dutch: