August 3, 2011

The best places to live in the Netherlands

Filed under: General by Branko Collin @ 9:42 am

In a tongue-in-cheek article, daily De Pers figured out the ideal Dutch towns to live in for large groups of people:

For the poor, Vaals (in the Southernmost tip of the country), because it is apparently easy to get social security there. The town wants to crack down on social security tourism though.

For the gays, Hillegom (South of Haarlem), of which the Pink City Guide of Bureau Movisie says it’s the gay friendliest town in the country. The municipality is working on a policy to support eldery gays, amongst others.

For the elderly, Kerkrade (Limburg). The paper quotes a citizen as saying: “Perhaps we can even draw older people from the rest of the country or even from abroad, because growing old in Kerkrade is fun.” It doesn’t say why it is fun.

For muslims, Alblasserdam (near Rotterdam). The town sports the highest percentage of muslims in the country.

For the handicapped, Huizen (East of Amsterdam), which is quick in allotting funds for medical needs.

For the Polish, Venray (Limburg), which realizes it will always need seasonal workers, so why not be nice to them.

For the drug addicted both Amersfoort (near Utrecht) and Utrecht (near Amersfoort). Junkies get free beer in the former town, and free methadone in the latter. (Pretty girls get free beer in Weert, Limburg. From the bar owners, that is.)

For the students, Sittard (Limburg), as it has the cheapest student housing of the country.

And finally, for sailors, the devoutly religious town of Urk (near nowhere in particular) which refuses to charge boat owners money for delivering electricity and water on Sundays, as that would constitute working on a Sabbath.

(Photo: an abandoned looking factory in Huizen)

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December 7, 2010

An interactive history of KLM’s house-shaped genever bottles

Filed under: Architecture,Aviation,Design,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 1:29 pm

First you follow the link to the cute little Delft blue houses, and then you can click on any of the 91 bottles and find out what house it is and where. Most of them can be found in Amsterdam, but a few of them are from towns like Amersfoort, Delft, Breda and Schiedam.

I spontaneously clicked on number 81 and got ‘proeflokaal’ (roughly ‘tasting pub’) De Drie Fleschjes (The Three Bottles) in Amsterdam pictured above (here is what it looks like today). Ironically, it is a place to sample gin and have a drink.

What I thought was odd though is that there is the same house twice (11 and 23), another ‘proeflokaal’ in Amsterdam, Wijnand Fockink. I think the makers of the site made a mistake, as 90 is a much nicer number.

(Link and image: klom.com, via amsterdamadblog.com)

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June 23, 2010

Homeless kept off streets with lots of beer

Filed under: General,Health,Weird by Orangemaster @ 11:53 am

Contrary to many other European countries, the Netherlands has very few homeless people (or so it seems) and in general, very few beggars on the streets. I’ve been to Paris and Brussels recently, which reminded me again how few beggars a city like Amsterdam has, even in the tourist season.

Apparently, in the town of Amersfoort, where someone has counted 25 homeless people, they have their own bar. They get free beer and can get food, a shower and medical attention while they’re at it. And that’s not all: they get a client card, allowing them to drink a 500 ml beer every hour and a half, with a max of 10 a day. Lucky them, as Dutch beers are usually a wimpy 200-300 ml.

It seems very sad to get them to drink more in a way, but my money is on the getting them off the streets for the sake of the yuppies and nice families who live in Amersfoort.

(Link waarmaarraar.nl)

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October 13, 2009

New exhibition for one visitor an hour

Filed under: Art by Orangemaster @ 11:29 am
Mondriaan_huis_Amersfoort_2.JPG

As of 26 October, the Mondriaan house museum in Amersfoort will be holding an exhibition entitled ‘Steven Aalders verbindt…’ (‘Steven Aalders connects’), which apparently must be viewed by one visitor at a time for 60 minutes. The idea is to turn the museum into a silent place where visitors can ‘let the art wash over them’ and ‘enjoy the empty spaces of the halls’. The exhibition features sculptures, architecture and music.

Yes, Piet Mondriaan (or anglicised to ‘Mondrian’) is that Dutch artist who went from painting landscapes and flowers to those grids with red, blue and yellow squares. Oh, and he was born in that house in Amersfoort.

(Link: haarlemsdagblad, Photo by Elly Waterman, some rights reserved)

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June 5, 2009

Man fined for walking around naked in his home

Filed under: General,Weird by Orangemaster @ 9:56 am
politie1

Last Wednesday, a 55-year-old man in the very decent town of Amersfoort, Utrecht was fined by the police for walking around his house – curtains open Dutch-style, I assume – naked and visibly so. It was the third time – oh dear! – the man was seen doing his thing by the person who called the police. (Was it nicer the first two times?)

He was fined with indecent exposure. I can’t stop myself from saying that maybe if it had been a decent looking woman, the cops would have been alerted much later if not at all.

(Link: volkskrant.nl, Photo: absurd.nl)

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September 18, 2008

Urinal lift on a terrace kills business

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:55 am
Urilift

City hotel Queens in Amersfoort has a serious problem that is basically killing their business. The city council decided to place a urinal, albeit a nifty one that rises above ground at 10 pm, right on their terrace. Can you picture taking a leak while people are having a drink on a terrace watching you? Would you want to be watching while having your drink? Ickeepoo. Well, other people don’t want to either, and so the hotel owner is pissed (pun intended).

After having spent hundreds of thousands buying and renovating an old building on the popular Groenenmarkt, the city council chose her outdoor terrace as the place for the urinal. And according to the owner, Paula Brouwer, the day before she was to receive the terrace permit, there was talk of a urinal, and her permit has been tied up in red tape ever since.

The city council came up with a deal: we’ll give you the permit, but you have to close your terrace at 10 pm. All the other terraces are allowed to stay open until 1 am, so imagine how much business she’d be losing. She has refused and has lawyered up. Why does this have a maffia feel to it? It’s also proof positive the city screwed up.

(Link: ad.nl, photo: urilift)

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December 31, 2007

Girafes currently listening to Top 2000 on the radio

Filed under: Animals,Music,Weird by Orangemaster @ 8:30 am
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Since Christmas evening, the girafes of the Amersfoort Zoo have been tuning in to the Top 2000 hits of the year on the radio. This is the zoo’s way of making sure they don’t freak out when then hear the bang of the fireworks on New Year’s Eve according to head caretaker, Marjo Hoedemaker.

Every day the volume is turned up a little louder. On New Year’s Eve the music will be so loud that the girafes will not notice the sound outside the zoo. The music will be switched off three hours after midnight. Other animals in the zoo apparently don’t react to the bid loud bang of fireworks.

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