havecarryonwilltravel

Pretty much every village, town and city in all of Holland and at least Flanders in Belgium have a few common high points. No matter how big or small the place ,they all have at least one and often several very large churches or kerken. They all have a Grote Markt which is a central square or market place always lined with restaurants. Somewhere close to the center of town is a shopping street for pedestrians only. More often than not, there is an ancient Stadhuis, city hall. It is usually huge and does not relate to the size of the town or city but most were built 4 or 5 hundred years ago when, I’m guessing, the Stadhuis was a status symbol. In both countries there are several pleins, squares, open areas surrounded by buildings lined with shops and restaurants used for celebrations and weekly markets.

The streets are not all streets and avenues. A common city street in a town or city is a Straat. A major road or a highway is referred to as Weg. If you are walking along the beach on a hard surface you are on the Strand. In the Netherlands, more so than in Belgium, the roads that align with the canals are named Gracht.

In North America, we for the most part, live horizontal as far as our house layout. The house and even the apartments or condos are on one or two levels. In Europe at least in the urban areas the houses are very narrow and the people live in a vertical fashion. The bedroom may be on the 4^th or even the 5^th story of a building with only a few feet of street frontage. Each  of the other floors are designated has one specific use such as the living area or the kitchen/dining area.

Tipping in either place is neither common nor expected. I noted that when the ‘tipping’ request showed up on the credit card payment machine the waiter would skip by it before handing me the machine to tap my card. In Bruges, a very touristy place, I was once asked for a tip. Extremely rude I felt. I think the fellow may have thought I was American or maybe just a stupid tourist. Anyway, I said no, I don’t think I made his day. There was a sign on the canal boat we were on suggesting tipping was a ‘custom’ but very few people actually put money in the fellow’s hat and then only coins.

Amsterdam is a very liberal place. There are some unusual things there like coffee shops where smoking pot is more prevalent than drinking coffee and of course there is the red light district with the products on display in the shop window. Just don’t be shocked when you are at Schipol airport on your way to the departure gate and a fairly burly fellow with bright red hair and a bushy red beard has just arrived and is heading to immigration dressed head to toe like Heidi complete with a red dress, knee socks and pigtails. Even after a few days walking around Amsterdam, that made me turn my head. The Dutch say ‘Doe maar normal, dan doe je al gik genoeg.’ (Direct translation: Just act normal, that’s crazy enough.) But in Holland it actually implies ‘We’re all a bit odd, so let’s not make a fuss about it’. And no one was making a fuss.

Debbie and I were trying not to get sick. We are going diving two weeks after we get back home and sick and diving don’t mix. So what do we do? Spend the last two days in Europe in one of the busiest cities, going to art galleries. Not the best strategy. The places were crowded to very crowded to extremely crowded. People were hacking and sneezing and we just tried to keep our distance. Then we started our journey home. Schipol Airport is a major hub, not just in Europe but of the world. You cannot find any place to isolate and avoid sick people. Montreal’s Trudeau airport was next and although not quite as crowded there were no secluded spots there either. If you are trying to remain healthy for any reason I would not recommend visiting galleries or museums on the last couple of days away and definitely avoid both of the above airports. When we arrived in Edmonton at about 10pm it was deserted. So far our health has remained intact.

Until next time…..

Here are some of my take aways from the last month in Holland and Belgium.

Moving in the Netherlands looks like a very expensive process. I watched some movers working over a couple of days. The unit being moved into was on the 9^th story. The building had a court off the road. The furniture was being moved in and out on an extendable pole lift with a bucket ,to the balcony. Two fellows at the top and two at the bottom. In prep for the truck and the lift to sit on the courtyard, huge metal plates were put down. The truck backed up to the lift, the outgoing stuff was loaded into the bucket, then lowered, the up going stuff then loaded in the bucket. This went on for hours. The next day the metal plates were lifted. All this would cost considerably more than a truck and elevator system used in North America.

When I am out riding at home and a rider passes in the opposite direction we usually acknowledge each other. When passing another rider a word is usually exchanged. When passing a pedestrian a good morning is usually offered. There was only one place in either Belgium or the Netherlands where an unsolicited response was offered. Around Veere, where there are many descendants of expat Scotsmen who moved there when the textile trade was running high. As we passed people there, early one morning, we were offered a hello or good morning. It was a noticeable difference.

The city riders in both countries have balls. They ride along on the bike roads and paths without much worry. It is up to the pedestrians to stop and look both ways both at the bike path and the road. The riders cruise by cross streets without pausing or even looking. When entering another bike path they just flow around the corner, any approaching riders move over slightly and avoid a collision.  We are the weirdos as we slow and try to look both ways, we just don’t trust that drivers or other cyclists will accommodate us. There is one thing that the riders in both countries stop for, the red bike lights. There were very few riders that disobeyed those stop signals.

Customer service is not quite the same as it is in North America. Twice we had waiters forget our order and had to approach them to make sure we ate. One day at hotel reception it was shift change. There was a line up, only one person at the desk. There were 3 other workers hovering around behind her. When the working lady had finished with the customer she bowed out with “my colleague will help you in a minute”. She left. The hovering people continued with what they were doing and we stood in line. The fellow in front of me shook his head, I shrugged my shoulders. Quitting time is quitting time I guess. This would not happen if I was in charge.

Vinyl records have made a comeback the last few years. I occasionally notice a ‘record store’ when wandering around a NA city. I think we passed 5 shops selling record albums the last two days we were in Amsterdam. We passed at least one record store in every city and town, no matter how small.

We found croissants in both countries. The bakers in both counties have a long way to go to match French croissants. The ones we ate were wrapped triangles of bread, not the flakey batter used in real croissants. That said, the bread and buns available at the supermarket were fantastic. Almost all of my breakfasts and lunches were buns and PB.

That is all for now I will post part 2 in a couple of days.