ESCAPE TO AMSTERDAM

I chose not to go over to Denmark. I was worried my feet would get so cold that they might freeze and break off!
So here we see the Surley in a very friendly German rail carriage designed to take bikes. They even have their own safety belt! It took two bicycle friendly trains but I soon found myself in Amsterdam.
Obviously it is Amsterdam - canals! As I hit Amsterdam over Easter I was only able to have one night in a hotel and the rest in the Caravan/Camping ground. Being cold I actually cooked in my tent!

Even though I did experience lots of snow the days were often sunny and it certainly didn't deter local commuting cyclists - they were everywhere. Interestingly out of the many millions of cyclists I was probably the only adult with a helmet. A question I'd love to have an answer too relates to the use of helmets. A question like: "Given the number of cyclists in Amsterdam and district what is the recorded brain injury rate per thousand that can directly be attributed to a cycling accident for say each year for the last 10 years?" I like the same data for a major city in Australia. My issue is that I believe that our compulsory helmet legislation is keeping people off bikes. Particularly for meeting your mates, going shopping and all the other many short trips that you can easily do on a bike. Trips where women particularly dont have to crush their latest hairdo! As a consequence we have congested cities and our population is largely missing out on the health benefits of cycling.