Before moving to the Netherlands I had been a keen runner and cyclist, but both activities seemed futile without either the challenge of an incline to ascend or the reward of a view from the top. The main road near my house was named Bergweg – ‘Mountain Road’ – but inclined so insignificantly that I couldn’t roll down it on my bike. When I did enter a short running race in Rotterdam, I received in the post written instructions on ‘How to Run Uphill’, lest I be unprepared for the slightly sloping bridge over which the race would pass. For the Dutch, life was lived in two dimensions.
