When I got home, I did some online research & spoke to a guy on the phone about my impounded bike & how I was going to get it back!  It turns out this organization may or may not be government-funded ( I couldn't figure that part out) but I have to give this group credit.  They are removing bikes that are abandoned from the fences, posts, bridges & signs that can accumulate very quickly in this city.  They prevent hazards as the Dutch really do keep their bikes in a pretty orderly fashion so that other bikes, scooters, cars & pedestrians can get past all the parked bikes.  I was no longer annoyed at the system.  I was annoyed with myself for not learning how to read Dutch signs & pay attention to the rules as they were laid out.  It is something I would get irritated with my kids for doing!

I was told I needed to come certain hours, certain days, take certain buses & show ID, proof of bike ownership & would then be figuring out my route home once I reclaimed my bike.  This was an adventure & I was game for it!  I must admit, I spent a LOT of time with Google Maps, my devices, writing out directions, planning & figuring out bus timetables, transfers, etc.!  I was afraid of leaving my comfort bubble & never finding my way back!!  The rain last night was really severe too, so I didn't sleep wondering if I was going to be fighting torrential rains on a multi-day excursion!  I even packed a sandwich this morning in case I was really far from civilization!!!  It's true, I really did.

OK, since I'm now here typing up my blog post, you can fast-forward to the end of the movie & realize it had a happy ending!  It was soooo much easier than I had anticipated & actually kind of fun!  The super-duper organized public transportation systems here are (from what I've experienced) quite flawless.  You walk to your stop where it clearly states which trams or buses will stop there, complete with a map & a timetable so you know when to expect them & at which stop you can get off the bus.  I took one from near my neighborhood to a big bus station about 20 minutes north.  I then got off at the bus/metro/train station and quite easily found the spot to wait for the next bus which drove me another 10 minutes way out yonder... I only saw factories & grass on these roadways & couldn't even imagine biking all the way back to the city from out here! 

When I got off at my stop, so did a few other local people.  They were all young people that looked dressed for work (it was 10am so I wondered if they have flex schedules?  Where do they work way out here?  ...or did they all need to retrieve bikes like me!?!?) As the guy on the phone told me, it was quite easy to follow the signs to the Fiets Depot (Bike Depot).  And no. None of the other commuters were doing what I was there to do 😙...

The first thing I saw was a GIANT crane grabbing as many bikes as it could, lifting them high into the air & dumping them into the back of a huge cargo container!  I thought: I hope that is NOT how they moved my bike!!  I remembered reading on their site that they hold impounded bikes for 3 months then the unclaimed will be donated or destroyed, depending upon condition.  Then my mind was blown as I walked to the main holding area where 65,000 bikes were parked!  They have 65,000 and these are only 3-months worth, if you consider the rotation basis!  the statistics here are 3 bikes for every citizen in Amsterdam.  Here at the depot there must be one additional "missing" bike per every 10 people.  This lot looked as it would look if every single person at Burning Man parked their bike to watch the man burn on Saturday night...but in an orderly way!!!

When I was helped by the woman at the counter, I thought OK, here's where the fun really starts!  She looked up my bike frame number (SMART Bryan has all the files from when we bought our bikes..!) and she could not find it in the system.  I was like really?  I'm all the way out here but going home without my bike??  I asked her what are the chances that you guys actually do not have my bike?  She said 20% chance.  Wow.  I was going home with A bike, no matter what.  Give me one of the ones marked for disposal, I don't care!  I'm not bussing it back to the city no matter what.  Well my blood pressure rose for no reason because her "colleague" ( I really want to look up the definition of this word because every single co-worker gets this title ) the bike mechanic walked me to the row of bikes that were picked up yesterday, sorted by location of pick up.  OMG.  SO.  ORGANIZED.  And BOOYAH!! there was my sweet ride, all green & happy to see me.  I almost hugged it.