I love my bike

You can't live in Amsterdam without your bike. OK, that might be a bit of exaggeration, since the public transport really is pretty good, but having a bike is what this city is all about. It is the pathway to liberation - no waiting for trams, you can stay out late at night without having to worry about getting an expensive taxi home (and the taxis here are really expensive) , and nothing beats riding through town when the weather is nice just taking in this city.

But what inspored this nostlagic little reflection? My amazing new Dutch fact for the day - one in 20 bikes - a total of 760,000 - were stolen in the Netherlands last year, says national statistics office CBS. In the cities the theft rate was double that. Interestingly, only 30% of bike owners reported the theft to the police. I think that is because with so many bikes stolen, you have fat chance of ever seeing yours returned (and aside from the fact that many of them look the same...) The other factoid in this story was that young people are most likely to have their bikes stolen. Got any theories on that one? Young people are more careless? Young people hang out in dodgier parts of town? Young people get drunk more often and just forget where they left their bikes, and instead assume they were stolen? You may laugh, but I have personally witnessed an example of each of these theories!

Anyway, am off to the pool to have a swim, so will leave with today's photo - a shot taken in the Olympic stadium at the end of the marathon. Only 100m to go... (and not a moment too soon!)