Bye Bye Amsterdam

I'm leaving tomorrow for Los Angeles, farewell to the Netherlands, it's been fun.

The red car below is a DAF, a car made in Holland, originally in Eindhoven actually, and DAF's passenger car business was sold to Volvo in 1975, eventually ending production of passenger cars in Holland.The DAF was a small, fuel efficient car, capable of transporting four adults in reasonable comfort. The Dutch company had been building such cars since the post WWII era, and for good reason too.
This is the current price of gas in Holland: 1 Euro and 29.5 Cents for a Litre of gas. There are about 3.8 litres in one US gallon, so that means that a US gallon of gas costs 4.92 Euro which, at current exchange rates means a gallon of gas here costs about $6.40.

No wonder the Dutch, and indeed the majority of European countries favor smaller more fuel efficient cars. If gas prices were as high in 1975, perhaps the DAF factory would not have been sold as fuel efficient cars would have been more in demand. But the writing is on the wall for the US - we have to use smaller more fuel efficient cars if we want to reduce our reliance on Middle East oil, and do something more constructive to reduce pollution.

The DAF was a highly innovative car, well ahead of its time. It had an automatic transmission that required virtually no expensive maintenance at all because it was essentially a pair of rubber bands - see below:
Incredibly simple, effective and efficient, and like many things in Holland, well ahead of it's time.

I am sad to leave Holland, and look forward to coming back

Crossing the Road ...

... Is no easy thing for a pedestrian in Eindhoven.

Bicycles and motorcycles are seriously encouraged and often have their own lane. Quite unlike the few bicycle lanes that we see in Los Angeles, however, here the cyclists and motor scooters have a separate lane in the sidewalk.

To cross the road below (outside my flat) you first have to avoid the kamikaze cyclists, then deal with the cars.
By the way, if you want a bigger view of any photo on this site, click on it. To make matters worse, cyclists have priority over pedestrians (you have to get out of their way) and also over motorists, who must yield to bikes.

As a result, cyclists tend to be quite fearless here. Note the cyclist above plowing through the red light while the meek motorists cower at the lights.

As you can see, bicycles rule over here.

It's A Load Of Balls...

... Here in Eindhoven where they commemorate Christmas in curious (at least to me) ways. This display caught my eye for a variety of reasons...

I'd Quite Like One Of These ...

OK, I know it's obviously not Dutch, but I've seen it parked outside my apartment almost every day since I arrived here, and I vaguely remember seeing it last year too. Besides, it's inherently eccentric too, so it is sort of Dutch!
It's a BMW C1 motorcycle.

Unfortunately for BMW and anyone else interested in a motorcycle that not only protects you from the elements, but also forces you to wear seat belts and protects you against SUV's driven by Venti, Half-Caf, Extra Hot, No Foam, Non-Fat, Crapochino crazed soccer moms talking on cellphones while fixing their make up, the C1 was discontinued in 2002 before high gas prices were thought of.

An idea ahead of its time.

For those of you that are interested Click Here to learn more about this remarkably sensible solution to urban traffic congestion and high gas prices.

Christmas Spirit in Eindhoven

I'm back in Eindhoven after a pleasant trip to Zeeland, and returning to find no internet connection at my flat until last night.

They certainly get into the spirit of things here. Before I left for Zeeland I noticed a curious structure being erected in the town square. I wasn't sure what it was, but thought it was probably something for the Christmas holidays.When I returned I found it was a fully fledged indoor ice skating rink. Apparently that is something of a national tradition in the Netherlands, and most towns have an ice skating rinkWhat's really impressive, at least to me, is the professionalism of the way the rink was put together. It is huge, well lit, and obviously purpose built. It even has its own bar and cafe.

But Eindhoveners aren't apparently satisfied with merely following national tradition with an admittedly superb ice skating rink, they also installed a ski slope!

It's immediately outside the Piazza (see the first post in this blog) and has about a 100 feet of snow to fall and break your neck on. There's a snow making machine to keep the snow fresh and not too icy.

Despite the attraction of both features, I'm not rushing to break my leg, neck or both on either the piste or the ice!

The Dutch Have A Way Of Saying Things ...

A picture paints a thousand words, and this one left little to doubt.

The top floor of a restaurant in Veere offered spectacular views after negotiating the rickety staircase, and lest one got carried away by it all, this salutary warning reminded you that what goes up must come down.

The Dutch have a way with words, but no sense of PC, notice the gender of the person falling down the stairs...

Veere - A Beautiful Town

My bracing walk on Sunday morning left me with quite and appetite, so we decided to have lunch in the nearby town of Verre (pronounced 'Vera,' as in Dame Vera Lynne) before leaving Zeeland to return to Eindhoven.

The skyline in Veere is dominated by a very ornate church spire. The highly decorated spire struck me as strange, given the generally Calvinistic nature of the Dutch.
Veere is certainly an old town and has many small narrow streets that harken from a time long before the motor car was thought of. In many ways it reminded me of my native Hampstead, both in terms of architecture and atmosphere.
We visited a couple of restaurants before settling on Pieter Bliek's 'Bliek Eten & Drinken' - the menu looked good and we were not disappointed. Not surprising, as I subsequently discovered this is the showcase for this very popular chef's fashionable wholesale bakery - rather like the La Brea Bakery.