Its compactness
The capital (and largest) city of the Netherlands has a
population of around 820,000. That’s
about half the size of Warsaw, and it’s squeezed into an area about half the
size too (200-odd square km against just over 500). Greater London has a population of about 8.5
million crammed into an area of 600-odd square km (by comparison the entire
population of the Netherlands is just under 17million – so twice that of
Greater London – but in a land area of forty one and a half thousand square
kilometres. Much more spacious.). Mind you, these figures come from Wikipedia
so may not be 100% accurate – but you get my drift. It’s a relatively small place.
So it feels like a small town rather than the bustling city
it is. A train will get you from
Schiphol airport into the main Centraal Station in about 15 minutes – much as
will its London equivalent the Heathrow Express. A tram will get me from my apartment to the
centre (or for that matter my office in the suburbs) in about the same time. The Heathrow Express may be more modern and
more comfortable but with a fare of £25 it’s MUCH more expensive. Which leads me to the next Like…..
Public Transport
It’s very easy to get around the place. There is a very efficient tram network, a
smaller but equally quick and efficient metro system, and plenty of buses. The metro is being expanded, but as with all
such projects is behind schedule and over budget (much like London’s Crossrail
and Warsaw’s east-west extension under the Vistula). Main line railway services also get you
quickly to outlying city areas in comfort.
All are served cheaply and cash-free by investing in an OV-Chipkaart
that costs about EUR3 to purchase and you can top it up on-line (or at machines
at all the major stations and interchanges) as and when required to enjoy
unlimited discounted travel. It’s like
the London Oyster Card only much cheaper.
I’m assuming at these prices there is heavy government
subsidy for the service, but that is no bad thing, surely. Call me old fashioned, but I thought one of a
government’s main tasks, right after the security of its citizens and health
care provision, was to provide said citizens with some services - be it public
transport, refuse collection or something else.
This is normal all over Europe, but since The Blessed Margaret’s days
such provision in London and other UK cities has always been largely paid for
by increased fares (at decreased efficiency), and lots of “private enterprise”,
under which shareholder return is more important than customer value. Someone should make it clear to Cameron and
Milliband and Clegg and (dare I say it….) Farage that there are actually other
ways of quantifying the concept of “value” other than “lowest cost”.
In any case, I’ve used the trams and metros extensively
since I’ve been here, and they are great.
My handful of mainline train journeys (to and from the airport) have
also been comfortable enough, although I’ve had to stand every time – no
surprise given the route travelled, and no hardship given the short journey
time. Last week I caught a bus from my
office in Amstelveen to the airport – it took maybe 20 minutes, and was as good
as any other transport service I’ve used.
As the bus stop is right outside the office it could be no more
convenient either.
I’ve only taken a cab once, on my first morning here, from
Schiphol to the office. It was a very
comfortable Mercedes at a very uncomfortable cost of EUR30 (for basically the
same trip as my bus last week that cost EUR2-50), but lugging a heavy suitcase
with a broken wheel it seemed the easiest and most convenient option. I would not make the same choice again
however.
Bikes. Lots of them
Holland is a flat country.
In fact, a good chunk of it is below sea level, and there is an
ingenious network of dykes that stop flooding from the rough wintry North Sea
and rivers. Schiphol airport is actually
sited on the bed of a lake that was drained over many years in the 19th
century as part of the national flood defences (I’ve been told that the word schiphol means lake bed). So it’s quite natural that the Dutch have
taken to bikes like no other nationality, and Amsterdamers are no
different.
The city is chock-full of bikes. The vast majority of them are the same
traditional Dutch bike – a high upright frame with no crossbar, big
old-fashioned handlebars, generally a carrying rack or two bolted on front and
back to carry shopping or passenger. A
high proportion don’t have brakes as would be recognised elsewhere – you stop the
thing by pedalling backwards. Mountain
bikes and racing bikes, popular all over the rest of the world, with their
lightweight frames, drop handlebars, raised seats and multiple gears (mine has
18), are few and far between.
There are many ingenious conversions on the road too, with
small covered passenger compartments for the kids on front and rear (bolted to
extended frames and often looking home-made and a little unstable). Kiddie seats are often attached to the
handlebars, sometimes with a high windshield for further protection, and double
up as a shopping rack. And of course
there are tandems (with their own kid seats as well), and a contraption I saw
the other day that is low-slung like a two-wheeled go-kart complete with a bright
yellow all enclosed fibre glass body shell.
I would love a go on that baby.
The main stations have multi-storey bike parks (even where
there is no car-park), and every shopping mall, school, hospital, public
square, church, park and office block – almost every street, in fact – has
plenty of parking racks too. They are
even in the Red Light district. Since
all the bikes look pretty much identical, finding your own on a dark winter’s
night must be a bit of bugger.
With all this undoubted popularity – cycling truly is a way
of life here, from earliest childhood – the people are better riders than any
I’ve come across elsewhere. Making calls
and texting on your mobile is commonplace.
Packs of riders bombing along laughing and joking and talking, a part of
the scenery. Carrying a passenger on
your handlebars or rear-mounted shopping rack?
No problem. The best sight I’ve
seen so far was a young lady, mid-twenties maybe, 30 at the outside, riding
through the business district by Zuid Station and the World Trade Centre the
week before last. She was riding no
hands, talking on her mobile with one and holding up an umbrella in the rain
with the other. She shot past the pub
doorway and straight across the pedestrian and cycle crossing on the main road without
even slowing down, secure (???) in the knowledge that The Bike Is Always Right
(this is the unshakable traffic code in Amsterdam).
And not a crash helmet in sight.
Everyone speaks English
‘Nuff said.
Oh, and they also speak a variety of other languages equally
well…..and often all together. A friend
of mine is fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish, French, German and Italian.
I feel quite inadequate.
The Architecture
I wrote in praise of Centraal Station on here last time. It’s not the only impressive looking building
in the city, there are others that comfortably match it, both ancient and
modern (and sometimes an interesting mix of both).
The Rijksmuseum is similar to Centraal Station, all Gothic
pillars and vaulted ceilings. Along
Damrak, running roughly south between the two, there are a number of other old
buildings now converted to shopping malls and banks and offices that form an
impressive skyline. Further out, around
the Zuid and RAI business district stations, within walking distance of my
apartment, are modern office blocks, hotels and conference centres towering in
glass and steel splendour way above the older 1970s apartment blocks that
remind me of some parts of Warsaw and east London.
On the eastern edge of the city, at Bijlmer, are more bank towers
and hotels and conference centres (and IKEA), but all are put to shame by the
impressive Amsterdam ArenA football ground.
It’s a monstrous structure, and you can see it from miles away,
squatting like some Spielberg flying saucer from the marvellous Close Encounters movie from 30-odd years
ago. I think it was the first stadium in
Europe with a retractable roof, which initially at least caused problems with
the grass of the pitch – it just didn’t grow properly and had to be re-laid
about 4 times per season. Ajax, the club
that plays there, have a site outside Amsterdam that is used solely for growing
and replacing the turf in the ArenA…..modern agro-technology has improved the
situation somewhat, but careful management is still needed. But it’s still a brilliant stadium, and is
the only one I’ve ever seen that is elevated on massive pillars to allow a six
lane motorway to run underneath it (roughly along the pitch’s halfway line
apparently). Note to self: must get to a
match there soon…..
In the city centre, too, between the concentric canal
network, there are many other lovely old buildings, offices and apartments and
shops and galleries now, but formerly the homes and warehouses of the old Dutch
merchants and traders from three and four hundred years ago. They’re all narrow and tall, perhaps four or
five floors high but only ten or fifteen feet wide. This is a result of the taxes paid at the
time, that were calculated according the frontage of the buildings: the
narrower the building the less tax paid.
So although narrow, their original owners built them to stretch way
back, often to the next canal, to have sufficient storage and living
capacity. All have the typical curved
Dutch gabled roof, and lean outwards at the top, to make hauling goods from
ground level to the upper floors easier and reduce possible damage to goods and
building.
The food choices
There is a great and varied choice of eateries throughout
the city. The usual suspects are
everywhere – McD’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Starbucks. There are kebab houses, takeaway sushi
parlours, Chinese and Indian and Thai restaurants. American and Argentinian steakhouses. French and Italian bistros. Spanish paella parlours. And more exotic diners from Dutch colonies
like Surinam.
And pubs. Dozens of
them, at least half of which seem to be Irish (or at least masquerading as
Irish). I’ve been to a couple and the
beer has been unfailingly pleasant and the food variable. This weekend I sought out The Old Bell in
Rembrandtplein, an old watering hole from my original spell here 14 years ago
that I had not been able to find a weekend or two back when I got here. Back in the old days, we all used to meet up
there and enjoy the food and beer in an atmosphere that I remember fondly. The pies were particularly good, especially
after one of the boys brought over some Bisto gravy granules and taught them
how to use it. I found it okay this
Sunday, but it seemed scruffier and definitely quieter (though that was
probably because half three on the Sabbath is not the busiest time of the
week). I sat outside for an hour or so,
in the sunshine, reading my book and watching the tourists (and trams) go by,
and enjoying the beer and food. I had a
pie, minced lamb, with chips and salad, and it was very tasty. But no Bisto – the art has clearly been
lost. And the lamb was not minced, only
diced into big chunks. But I’m being a
bit picky – it was fine.
There are lots of little chip shops scattered around as
well, serving big paper or cardboard cones full of crispy deep fried chips
smothered in mayo and/or ketchup, barbecue or garlic sauce. Filling, tasty and for a couple of euros a
good belly filler when you’re wandering around aimlessly sightseeing.
And we mustn’t forget the pavement cafes and coffee shops
that sell a decent cappuccino or double espresso and a pastry – and often
substances that are still illegal in less enlightened countries (like the UK)
and lend a sweet fragrance to the Amsterdam air and a smile to your face if you
breathe in too deeply.
Schiphol Airport
On its lakebed site, it’s huge and impressive, with a six
lane highway going under the main taxiway.
The taxi in on landing seems to take forever and it’s easy to believe
the place is about the size of Liechtenstein.
At Heathrow, on the approach to Terminal 3, there is an advertising
display for Etihad Airlines that comprises a couple of scale model Airbus
planes. At Schiphol, KLM advertises its
domicile by placing a retired Fokker 100 airliner on the roof of its Panorama
Terrace, where it forms a permanent museum attraction. Can’t help thinking BAA and British Airways
missed a trick when they retired Concorde…..
But despite its sprawling size the airport terminal complex
is very well laid out and efficient. The
bus station is right outside the door and the railway station below the
building, so access either way is easy.
There is a single massive shopping and restaurant complex in the space,
and easy to follow signs to Arrivals and Departures, as well as a wealth of
flight information and train schedules.
The departure area is up a moving ramp or escalator, and for Schengen
travel couldn’t be simpler. There are
check in machines everywhere, offering a simple process to print your boarding
pass either by using your Frequent Flyer card (for a number of different schemes),
quoting your name and booking reference from your e-ticket, or most easily by
scanning your passport. It literally
takes less than a minute. A further
couple of minutes’ stroll gets you to security, and you have the usual
aggravation on unpacking your laptop, taking off coats and belts and shoes, and
going through the scanners while your bags are x-rayed, but in comparison to say
Warsaw or Frankfurt or Heathrow, it is quick and efficient. When I flew home a week or so ago – arriving
at the airport at 5:30 on a Friday evening: the rush hour – the whole process,
from getting out of the bus to strolling into the bar inside the Departure hall
and close to my departure gate took no more than 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes to print a boarding pass and
clear security – it’s unheard of.
There are of course caveats.
First off, I had no baggage except my laptop, nothing checked so no
queueing at a bag drop counter. Second,
both Holland and Poland are in the Schengen zone, as are all European mainland
countries, so there is no requirement for passport checks (why the UK
stubbornly refuses to join I have no idea).
If I had a bag to drop or was travelling outside Schengen I’m sure it
would be much more stressful – but that is why I’m happy to be back working in
sensible Europe.
The TV and Radio
Like everywhere nowadays, it’s satellite and cable. At home, my channel selection on Canal+/Ntv
runs to a good 40, including dedicated sports channels so I can keep on top of
the Premier and Champions League competitions.
But of that 40 odd, I have maybe 5 that are English language, and on
three of them I have to actually select English as an option. Everything else is Polish, and if the
programme or movie is in English, the local language is (badly) dubbed over the
top of it so that the original language is heard, more or less clearly, in the
background. To say the least, it’s a
distraction, but one I’ve grown accustomed to over the years.
In places like Egypt and Cyprus and Qatar, where I’ve spent
a lot of time over the past few years, it’s a similar story – for Polish read
Arabic or Greek. Ditto Switzerland and
Germany and Spain and Turkey – pretty much everywhere. The main difference is always the quality or
otherwise of that dubbing, and the English channels tend to be restricted to
CNN and BBC World News, with bonuses of BBC Entertainment. Gulf states also tend to provide their local
equivalents of Sky Sports, with a panel of English presenters and pundits
typically hired away from Sky. But these
are always premium channels and not all hotels provide them.
In Bermuda, I suffered three months of American television,
which is every bit as dire as it’s made out to be, with BBC World News and BBC
America thrown in, but for the latter the programming was dreadful – an entire
WEEK of non-stop Doctor Who to launch
the latest series, and endless repeats of Top
Gear and Gordon Ramsey,
entertaining though they often are, very soon wore thin.
So it’s been an absolute pleasure to get my basic cable
channel package plugged in here. I have
at least 50 channels, including English choices of BBC World News, CNN, Al
Jazeera News, Euronews, Eurosport, BBC Entertainment AND BBC One and BBC
Two. There are at least 10 other
channels in the Dutch choices that broadcast English language movies and
programs UNDUBBED (typically there are subtitles instead). My radio choices, within the same basic
channel package, include Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4 and the BBC World
Service, plus a whole range of Dutch genre stations (so for classical, opera,
country, alternative rock and so on) where the music is good and the DJ babble
kept to a minimum. On the news bulletins
for the Dutch stations, where an English speaking politician is being
interviewed or sound-bitten, again there is no intrusive dubbing.
It’s great.
Finally – the people
They have been unfailingly friendly and welcoming. The team at work, as usual, is multi-racial,
and there are a good few that I worked with on projects 5 and even 10 years
ago, and I haven’t seen them since. It
numbers people from Bulgaria and Switzerland, South Africa and Ecuador, as well
as English and (the inevitable) Indians.
As we share a background and war stories, I would expect them to be
friendly and welcoming (thankfully I’ve managed to make very few enemies over
the years, and none of them are here).
The bank folk too have been great, helping me settle in quickly.
But the locals outside the bank environment have been great
too, in the shops and bars and restaurants that I’ve used so far. Always a friendly smile when I say hello, and
an easy conversation in my language to follow.
It makes it much easier to settle into a new place.
This is typical of the Dutch though. I’ve worked with many over the years, and
indeed one of my closest friends at work (also a Warsaw based ex-pat) comes
from Rotterdam, up the road. They seem
to have a relaxed friendliness that makes them easy to get to know and
like. Yes, they can be stubborn and
grumpy – but then so can I (I put it down to my increasing age) – but generally
there is an easy going, almost carefree nature to the Dutch that is right up my
street.
I like it here.
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