For an environmentally friendly way to travel and to get some good exercise, how about pedaling a bicycle through a landscape of tulip fields, canals, and black and white cows in the Netherlands?

Hi, I'm Rick Steeves, and today on Travel with Rick Steeves, we'll travel on two wheels to a pair of very different destinations.

We'll start by taking a fresh look at the Netherlands, where the typically sensible and efficient Dutch

approach to a well-ordered society makes a bicycle

a routine and easy part of getting around town.

As Rolinka Blooming recommends, I think biking is so much part of our lifestyle and that will be fun if the water is good, get a bicycle.

And later in the hour, adventure cyclist Willie Weir tells us about a recent bike excursion he and his wife took across Columbia.

He'll tell us about this emerging gem of South America

and how they've made bicycles and pedestrian-only zones an important way to

distress big city life. We're getting ready for the spring flower season in the Netherlands, plus an up-close guide

across Columbia by bike.

It's all just ahead on Travel with Rick Steves.

Travel with Rick Steves is made possible in part by American Airlines.

Their Advantage program can help you earn miles toward your next vacation.

Details are at AA.com.

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When you think about the Netherlands and Dutch culture in Holland, you think about cliches,

flowers, tulips, woodmills, skating, but you also think about a society that's progressive,

a society that celebrates tolerance, a society that has an intimate relationship

with the sea, and a society that is contributing mightily to the European Union.

I'm Rick Steves, this is Travel with Rick Steeves and today we're going to Holland.

We're going to the Netherlands and I'm joined by Rolinka Blooming who comes to us from the Netherlands.

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