June 30, 2016

Biggest bakery in Europe being built in Aalsmeer

Filed under: Dutch first,Food & Drink by Orangemaster @ 4:46 pm

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Belgian company Montea from Aalst, Belgium, which specialises in really big warehouses, is currently building the biggest bakery in Europe in Aalsmeer, North Holland, a city known its world-famous flower auction and proximity to Schiphol Airport.

The bakery will be the size of eight football pitches, use 8000 m3 of concrete and cost 40 millions euro. Construction should be done in October and family business Borgesius-Bakkersland, two recently merged Dutch companies, will start producing some 600,000 loaves of bread and pastries to supply supermarket chain Albert Heijn.

One of Montea’s last big Dutch jobs was the development of the biggest Internet pharmacy in Europe located in Heerlen, Limburg, of which the warehouse was a “mere” 14,800 m2.

(Link: www.lecho.be)

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August 28, 2014

Two Belgian tanks ram each other on Dutch motorway

Filed under: Weird by Orangemaster @ 4:18 pm

Dear stand-up comedians: Christmas has come early this year.

Like two cars swerving to avoid a duck crossing the road in slow motion, two Belgian Piranha-type tanks rammed each other near Valkenswaard, Limburg on the busy N69 (giggle) motorway, attempting to avoid a tractor. Both tanks are leaking fuel, but fortunately no one was hurt. I’m sure some egos are bruised though, as they should be.

Let me see how many cheap shots I can take before reading other people’s comments:

‘Sergeant! There’s a big green tractor that keeps getting closer! BAM!

‘Whew! It’s a good thing this is just a military exercise’.

‘Crew cruise control on these things really suck.’

After the crash:
‘Right, I’m off for a slash, toodles’.

(Link: www.nu.nl)

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March 27, 2009

Oldest Dutch resident turns 107 – and is Belgian

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 12:03 pm
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The oldest living man of the Netherlands, Jos Wijnant, is celebrating his 107th birthday today along with his daughters and other residents at the De Taling pensioners home in Den Bosch, according to Dutchnews.nl (English).

Wijnant, who is keen on following the news and enjoys a glass of wine, puts his long life down to never have done ‘stupid things’.

And if Wikipedia is accurate, he was born in Antwerp, which makes him Belgian.

(Link: Dutchnews.nl, photo freegeorge.us)

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May 25, 2007

Smokin’ Dutchies

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 9:51 am
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A record that is not something to be proud of: The Dutch are now the heaviest smokers of Europe, followed by the Belgians and the British. In 2006 the Dutch lit up 1,511 cigarettes per inhabitant. The old record belongs to the Germans (from where this posting is being written – Munich). The Netherlands is one of the only European countries left that still allows some smoking in catering establishments. No one saw the cloud of smoke in the bistro car of my German night train this morning. The lightest smokers are the Italians with 1,175 cigarettes.

(Link: Blik op nieuws)

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May 17, 2007

Dutch fined for not voting in Belgium

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 10:27 am
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Belgium is fining Dutch nationals who live in Belgium, registered to vote in the municipal elections last October, yet who failed to vote. Voting is compulsory for all Belgian residents who are registered to vote, even foreign nationals. The fine starts at 500 euro a person.

Rene van Ham, who lives in the Belgian-Dutch border town of Hoogstraten where 10% of the population is Dutch, said he did not realize this. A neighborhood policeman came to his door recently with a summons.

EU nationals living in Belgium are automatically eligible to vote in local elections. Non-EU nationals who have lived in Belgium for five years are also eligible to vote as of last year, but they need to sign an agreement promising to respect Belgian law. The courts in the border area confirmed that quite a few Dutch nationals failed to show up at the municipal elections.

(Link: People’s Daily)

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April 20, 2007

Headaches about headaches

Filed under: General by Orangemaster @ 5:25 pm
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Forget those recent articles about Belgians pissed off at Dutch drug cafés being moved closer the Belgian border in the Southern province of Limburg. Now there’s a whole new reason for the Belgians to cross border shop: paracetamol. To protest against the high cost of painkillers in Belgium (4 to 5 times the Dutch price), the Flemish KWB (‘Christian Workers Movement’) has organised a bus trip on 21 April to the border province of Zeeland just to buy paracetamol. Even the mayor of Hulst, who will be welcoming the buses in more ways than one, will have maps and drinks ready for his Flemish visitors.

(Link)

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