The story of the Flowerbike man - “Love is the cure”

Do you agree that love is the best medicine?

Walking around Amsterdam, we see bicycles decorated with flowers all over the city. Who made them and for what purpose?

The story traces the love story of an American couple, Warren and Michelle.

Warren and his wife first traveled to Amsterdam in 2004 from the small town of Tarpon Springs, Florida. They immediately fell in love with the Dutch capital and decided they wanted to live there. The following year, they moved, Warren bought a houseboat, and settled in. Michelle quickly found a job, and everything worked out perfectly.

One day, however, Michelle became very ill, and in the hospital she was diagnosed with a form of epilepsy. Her symptoms were so severe that she could not even perform her daily tasks, so the couple moved back home to Florida. Although she started working, the illness made her confused and unable to find her way around the streets. To solve this, her husband came up with a solution: he placed a flower-covered bicycle on the route where she had to go on her way to work. After that, his wife never got lost again.

However, in the small Florida town, the police considered it an offense to place decorated bicycles on the street, and the residents did not appreciate this type of street art either. The bikes were damaged or stolen. The couple decided to return to the much more tolerant Amsterdam and start a new life there.

Warren bought another boat, they moved in, and after that they never thought about returning home again.

Unfortunately, Michelle's condition worsened, so her husband brought up the idea of the flower bike again: he placed the decorated bikes along her usual route. In the Netherlands, this was not considered illegal, and in fact, people found the bikes heartwarming and artistic. Warren, although he himself struggled with chronic pain, put more and more bikes on display around the city for the sake of his love. If one got damaged, he redecorated it.

These street art works have now become one of the landmarks of Amsterdam. The location, number, color and decoration of the bicycles are constantly changing, but it is definitely worth finding as many of them as possible in the city. They very well reflect the life-affirming, tolerant, humane attitude and worldview of the Dutch.

Warren believes that love heals.

For Michelle, every time she walked in the city, she was reassured that her husband's love for her was strong and constant, and that made her happy. And a happy person heals more easily.

Today, more than 100 bicycles placed by the Flowerbike man can be seen in the Dutch capital.