Underwater bike parking

A garage under the water

Stand in front of Amsterdam Centraal and look at the bikes. They are locked to every rail and rack, thousands of them. Now go down below the water line, where thousands more stand in a garage under the harbour.

Nobody is trying to impress you here. It is a very Dutch answer to a very Dutch problem: too many bikes and too little pavement. What surprises people is how tidy it is, how well lit, and how close to the water. You can see the IJ from inside, a bit like looking into an aquarium where the fish have been replaced by handlebars.

It is free to look around. Give it twenty minutes and you will understand something about how people in this city get about.

Why the bikes need somewhere to go

The station explains the problem. Centraal was designed by Pierre Cuypers, the architect of the Rijksmuseum, and opened on 15 October 1889. It stands on three artificial islands in the IJ, held up by more than eight thousand wooden piles driven into soft ground.

Many people in Amsterdam disliked the plan. The station cut the old city off from the open water of the IJ, and a city that had been a waterfront city became an inland one. Rail, metro, tram and ferry all meet here now, and a great many passengers arrive or leave by bike. Each of those bikes needs a place to stand. Building the parking down into the water, where there is room, gives some of the front of the station back to people on foot.

What to look for

Start with the light. It comes through the water, so it moves and changes with the weather and the time of day.

Then look at the order of it all. Rows of bikes, kept in line, in a city where the bikes outside are often parked in a heap.

Look at the bikes themselves. Some are shiny commuter bikes. Others are battered black workhorses with a crate on the front or a child seat on the back. You will see very few fancy ones. The Dutch bike is a tool, and the garage shows you what the tools look like when they are put away for the day.

Watch the people too. They walk in quickly and know exactly where they are going. Nobody stops to take a photo except you, and that is part of the charm.

Check the signs at the entrance to see how the parking works. If you do not have a bike, keep out of the way of those who do, especially at rush hour.