Last view of holiday home

Farewell Amsterdam

In Amsterdam the bicycle is king,
Or queen, if you prefer, and woe betide
Pedestrians who do not step aside
To make way for the silent knot or string
Of riders, in their own velocipedal world.
Eyes fixed ahead, they come, tall and strong-thighed
And rarely jaunty, just out to enjoy the ride;
But old or adolescent, boy or girl,
They pedal with determination. Only
Now and then a smile is seen for offspring
In a kind of barrow out front, clinging on,
Or maybe as part of a conversation on
Their mobile phone.  Wide paved swathes are theirs;

Strangers, dreamers, wanderers, all: beware!