Transportation

One of the first Dutch words everyone on the trip learned was fiets, which means bikes. So you can guess what our main mode of transportation is! Not to mention this is a Sustainable Urban Transportation dialogue so transportation is all we seem to talk about and biking is all we seem to do! I’m not complaining though-it’s a great way to see this beautiful country and if you’re going to bike then the Netherlands is the place to do it. We bike to class every day and most days include an additional biking excursion around Delft or to a nearby town. Our longest bike ride was about 30 miles round trip and included an extended stop at a beautiful beach. We all received bikes on our first day here that are ours for the length of the program. When we go on bigger trips using trains we’ll rent bikes at our destination to better see the city. This is actually a great travelling strategy because it allows you to see a lot in a shorter amount of time.

Even though we are mostly biking, we have had some opportunities to use public transportation and have had nothing but good experiences. The public transportation system here is far superior to Boston (sorry MBTA) and you can almost always count on your train being on-time and running smoothly. Using public transportation to get to some of the bigger cities around Delft is very easy and super quick, but it can be a bit expensive. Luckily several trips are included in our program and biking everywhere really cuts down on transit costs.

 Until next time, doei!