The Netherlands
I've just got back home after a short trip to Holland, and I'd just like to say it's one of the nicest places I've been to.
I went to Rotterdam, but as I took my car across, I checked out a few of the nearby smaller places too, like Oostvoorne and Rozenburg.
Never before have I met such friendly and helpful people :) Everyone always seemed in such a good mood, and was very jolly, and were as helpful as could possibly be, as I can't speak any Dutch.
Only thing is.... I want to go and live there now! :)
It's just like Lincolnshire, but without all the shit that goes with it.
I did notice three strange things though....
1. There are thousands of places selling takeaway food, but didn't see any fat people (except myself)
2. You can buy cigarettes everywhere. Including chemist shops.
3. There is a strange custom of rounding up and down amounts when buying things in shops.
Sorry for this brief interlude... normal Spectrum related conversation will commence shortly!
I went to Rotterdam, but as I took my car across, I checked out a few of the nearby smaller places too, like Oostvoorne and Rozenburg.
Never before have I met such friendly and helpful people :) Everyone always seemed in such a good mood, and was very jolly, and were as helpful as could possibly be, as I can't speak any Dutch.
Only thing is.... I want to go and live there now! :)
It's just like Lincolnshire, but without all the shit that goes with it.
I did notice three strange things though....
1. There are thousands of places selling takeaway food, but didn't see any fat people (except myself)
2. You can buy cigarettes everywhere. Including chemist shops.
3. There is a strange custom of rounding up and down amounts when buying things in shops.
Sorry for this brief interlude... normal Spectrum related conversation will commence shortly!
Post edited by chaosmongers on
Comments
So much so that we're looking at buying a place near Amsterdam in a few years...
Andrew
Probably all the cycling they do.
I'm sure Matthew would join that one.
Alternatively, we should get with Martijn and arrange a big Amsterdam WoS meetup for later in the year...
Andrew
@1) Take a closer look, fat people is also a problem in Holland.
@2) But there is an age check. (No selling to <16, ID will be checked)
@3) People find the 1 and 2 eurocent annoying so a lot of shops will round cashpayments to the nearest 5 (normally rounded). This must be announced when entering the shop. So it will cost you max. 2 eurocent per payment.
This comes from the time before the euro where the smallest currency was 5 cent (about 2,25 eurocent) after abandoning the 1 cent in 1980 since it costet 3 cent to produce 1 cent. When the euro was introduced people soon wanted to round again.
You went the wrong way,
Martijn lives north (not south) of Rotterdam in Den Haag
(app. 20 km or 12.5 miles)
Finland, like Holland has the euro and 1 and 2 cents are still valid coins.
So the smallest coin isn't 5 but 1. For the same reason as in Holland in
Finland is rounded as well.
Some shops in Germany (I live near the border so I can visit Germany and Holland) want to do the same as in Holland.
I found one shop in Germany that ALWAYS rounds downwards toward the lower 5 cent.
Define NEAR, is it in km or in travelling time by train.
And how much traveltime?
I live 130 km from Amsterdam and work there 3 days / week.
(Single traveltime 2 hours, but what a time to code ONELINERS/MINIGAMES)
For all the silly stuff the EU does, I think overall things like this are such a benefit to everyone who lives in Europe, that overall, I'm pretty much for the whole European movement. I just wish Britain would join the Schengen agreement properly, too.
Having the freedom of Europe is immensely valuable, IMHO, even if I have no plans to actually move anywhere for the time being - having the freedom to do so is something I really value.
We liked Diemen. That's just a couple of stops on the train away.
Andrew
That's the minimum range to look in.
I would also try Amstelveen (by streettrain or bus) or Purmerend (by bus) or Almere (by train).
Most change to find something affortable there.
Is Diemen particularly expensive?
Andrew
Everything direct around Amsterdam is expansive.
However ALMERE is still affortable.
It is a brand new city (app. 25 years old) with now over 100,000 inhabitants and still growing.
About 1/2 hour till1 hour with train to centre of Amsterdam
Yeah... that's not quite the '10 minutes on the train to pop into the city for dinner' that me and the wife will want :)
The plan is to get somewhere we can go on holiday to (and rent out) with the eventual aim of moving there ourselves when we get fed up with the US (and our son has grown).
Andrew