Neatly put Netherlands.

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Neatly put Netherlands.

- Piprey on wheels



One of the nicest things we can do in life is to visit an old friend.

Easy Travel to Netherlands via Germany

I planned a trip from London to Herkenbosch (small village in Limburg, Netherlands on the border of Germany) via Dusseldorf. When I started to pack, I realised that my basic fare allowed only one bag. So it was tossing everything into a single large handbag (Not the best way to impress people but I was visiting an old friend).I took local bus with the usual morning panic for Eurowings boarding from London Heathrow to Dusseldorf. No fuss.

Reaching Dusseldorf, I thought my connecting bus from Dusseldorf to Roermond was 11.30 instead of 11.50. This meant that I missed buying those appetizing large, brown, lovely pretzels in Dusseldorf Hauptbahnof. I made up for it at Roermond.

Wonderful stay with friend

My friend picked me up from Roermond train station. We ate lunch at one of the nicest bagels with pumpkin paste in a cozy, warm eatery (Bagels and Beans). The restaurant staff were smart, young and friendly. The food was fresh but dry. Unfortunately, the chai latte was too diluted with just a touch of turmeric. Netherlands is most certainly the land of coffee and not tea.

At the beautiful home of my friend, it was lovely to make friends with her 5 year old and 12 year old girls. With the 5 year old, I did loads of pencil drawings (she had good control of her fingers). Later, after a spicy home made meal of lady's finger and aubergine with a mix of ready made and homemade chapati, we watched a superhit Bollywood movie, Pathan. I was keen to prove to my friend and her hubby that long hair made men look handsome as evident in 50 plus year old Shahrukh Khan movie star. The 12 year old was curious, practical and well mannered. It was a pleasure to get to know them.

It was a 20 mins drive from Herkenbosch to Roermond. The children played in the bouncy balls castle in the basement of the restaurant. My friend proved it right that red, tomato based pasta tasted better than the white carbonara based pasta. I must have bored the people comparing prices between UK and Netherlands. For example, milk was cheap but bananas were so expensive.

There was fresh produce, market fair at Roermond on Saturday.

Her 5 year old took my hand and took me to the fresh fish market stand because she knew that I loved eating fish. She led me as I told her the names of fishes.

Her family is strict vegetarian but that did not stop her from putting a bunch of toy fishes in my palm during lunch 😊

I kept wondering that if such deep tolerance and respect exists in a 5 year old, how does it get lost when one grows up?

Speaking of losing things, she lost her rainbow hair band. My friend and I went around looking for it in the restaurant but no luck.

I changed plan to go to Amsterdam for a business meeting directly from Roermond and bought a couple of formals. I bought a suede brown leather with crocodile skin patterns (Gabor brand) for 60 Euro (on sale) to go with my formal suit of white blouse and green trousers. A bit of early spring in my wardrobe for cold February but can't wait 😊.Borrowed a nice sober green,robust bag and rolled all my clothes into it.

We played card games like Ghulam Chor, Gadha peta peti and bluff. It was great to go for an afternoon walk with my friend in the tree lined countryside with a man made forest close by (created after the world war 2 bombings) to piping hot jalebi made by her husband at home. Enjoyed the historical block bluster- Ponniyan selvan - part 1 with family. What an intriguing fictional epic story on the Chola dynasty of India.

Did a bit of gardening, clearing up the weeds and trimming the creepers for spring. Dinner was homemade kichdi with a yummy vegetable soup. Everyone chewed cooked drumsticks differently. Thus, ended a beautiful weekend.

Comfortable Travel from Roermond to Amsterdam

All packed up, said good bye to the girls and went for another round of Bagel with my favourite pumpkin paste and lovely free coffee, before catching the train to Amsterdam. My Revolut card refused to work at the ticket booth but thankfully I had cash. It worked after I confirmed some security questions.The OV chip card can be used for all land travels in Netherlands. I paid 7.50 Euro for the card and 40 Euro to top it up.

There was some rail engineering maintenance work between Weert and Eindhoven. Unlike England, where you wait good 10-15 mins for the shuttle bus to come, it was promptly waiting outside for the passengers. We jumped in and reached in 20 mins. I resumed my train journey.

Agitated Amsterdam

I was following transport app called 9292 for directions on my smartphone at Amsterdam. I had to reach the area around Heineken museum for my hotel. I searched for route 53 on all the signboards for trams but there were 23, 24 etc but no 53. Silly me! I had to catch the subway (underground metro) and not tram 😊

Amsterdam felt strange as I faced the full onslaught of the buses, trams, cars, scooters and the cyclists. As the road direction was on the right rather than left, vehicles suddenly seems to pop up from nowhere.

I constantly looked at both sides to make sure coast was clear. I finally reached Notting Hill hotel and was given a sub subterranean room with 2 full beds as an upgrade. There were sachets of free coffee and tea for 4 people. Missed my friend and her family.

Wandering by the canal, I enjoyed a lovely pasta meal at a local restaurant. Bought some knick-knacks from a local department store called HEMA. Being not too sure, another Dutch customer helped with the card payment.The Dutch were generally friendly, dependable and helpful.

My business meeting at Heineken office was a 20 mins walk down the road. It was great to get my laptop and access details so that I was ready for upcoming meetings. My client kindly drove me to the BASE which is at the Amsterdam Schiphol office after letting me drop my hand luggage at a funky hotel called CitizenM, around the corner from the BASE.

The Amsterdam office has a unique culture. People forget everything and rush for lunch at 12 noon because the food runs out if you are late.

I ate a tasty hot meal of chicken curry and roti with a bowl of hot soup. The next day, I tried a beef burger but it was so dry and tasteless. A piece of lettuce sufficed for all the vegetables in the burger. At Netherlands, people prefer a very dry lunch, a slice of bread with cheese. Another favourite is a slice of bread with butter and tiny, chocolate sprinkles.

A senior manager at the canteen table shared that she had visited Rajasthan (India) a long time back and had loved it.

A dutch person wanted to take her children to visit India to show them how privileged they are in Netherlands.

It seems she had given an Indian child a cookie who had jumped for joy and this had made a big impression on her on the poverty of India. To above remark, another Dutch colleague commented that poverty is very near, you can look at Romania. Not sure about Netherlands but most certainly in UK there are people who cannot afford one square meal and rely on food banks. Thankfully, conversation shifted to other topics.

I made friends with a colleague from another department who sat across me in the open plan office. She was finishing her secondment and flying back to St Lucia via London. A calm and composed woman who missed Carribean food in Amsterdam. We plan to meet in London in April and hope to make her try some spicy jerk chicken 😊

My stay in CitizenM hotel was a unique experience. Small, compact with a big window showing the hanger areas of planes. I saw Easyjet, Ryanair, some blue planes returning to hanger and then flying off in the morning. So near yet, no noise pollution.

There was room control on an i-pad for temperature, lights, TV channels and other facilities. It was Internet of Everything for the convenience of the customer.

There were 5 small books which I grazed through. The bedroom had a sink. A compact shower and toilet enclosure made of plastic walls which glowed as per your colour preferences. I could not move the side table. A sophisticated prison.

I ordered an Aperol Spritz and an Italian pasta which I had to collect from the counter (No waiters). I sat at a table with dim lighting in the lobby. It was more like a contemporary living room with TV, books, flower vases, wall paintings by local artists than a hotel lobby. The second day, I bought a sandwich and a local Chocolonely milk chocolate bar (180gm is priced 3.75 Euro while at CitizenM- 75gm bar was priced 2.25 Euro) from local supermarket store called Albert Heijn near The BASE,office complex.

Once day, I forgot my credit card at the hotel. I decided to use my virtual card to make payment but it did not work. A virtual card does not work on a physical POS device. However, I think I have seen them working in the UK buses and metro stations.

Speedy travel back from Netherlands to London


• Checked out from CitizenM at do it yourself at a computer kiosk at 8.30 am UTC (Was a bit late for an early morning meeting as I was looking for the meeting room on the wrong floor)
• I quickly took a typical dry Dutch sandwich lunch at 12 noon UTC and left office at 12.15 pm UTC
• Walked about 5 mins from The BASE to CitizenM to collect my hand luggage.
• Walked about 7 mins to Amsterdam Schiphol airport departures. Inside airport, took a little turn to reach terminal 3.
• After customs and security check, I was there by the boarding gate around 12.45 pm UTC. One hand luggaged was checked twice.
• KLM flight departed on schedule at 1.30 pm
• Flight duration - 1 hour 20 mins
• Landed 5 mins late at London Heathrow because the airport could not give it a landing slot. Landed at 1.55 pm GMT ( 2.55 UTC)
• Out of London Heathrow, terminal 2 to the central bus station by 2.15 pm GMT (3.15 pm UTC)
• Home by 2.50 pm GMT (3.50 pm UTC)
• 3.45 hours door to door.



British Airways vs KLM- KLM wins!
British airways would have most definitely been delayed, if it decided to fly at all. Along with delay, there would have been dollops of robot faced, "super efficient", racist like staff behaviour to passengers depending on your ethnicity. I can never forget British airways staff gossiping while wearing funky, Christmas like jumpers while passengers waited for their luggage to arrive on the conveyor belt for good 3 hours in the dead of the night. KLM is such a wonderful contrast.

Overall, I found London Heathrow very touristy and Amsterdam Schiphol airport light, innovative and passenger friendly.

Summary

Netherlands is highly innovative. People invest in the best of energy saving devices (solar panels, insulations etc) to qualify for a high standard of living so that people do less household chores. My personal opinion is that men do a lot of household chores and hence have automated most of things to save them trouble. Even the ordinary houses were of far better quality than those of UK.

Transport was efficient and trains were much more cost effective than UK. 28 Euro in so called peak hours from Roermond to Amsterdam central for a 2.5 hours journey. UK would probably ask for nothing less than 50 GBP.

A coach ride from London Heathrow to Birmingham itself is 2.5 hours and costs 55 GBP on a Saturday.

Most importantly, I found the cost of living high. Besides rent, it was the food.

Hardly growing any fresh vegetables, most are imported.

Like capitalist countries, Netherlands does not seem to encourage people to save as the bank savings interest rates are low. This fuels the economy but makes the people state dependent. I heard that there were accidents in Amsterdam because of aggressive cyclists. (Not the idyllic cycling I do, going to ASDA to buy milk). The down to Earth people and lack of show biz was very refreshing. Flat topography reflected by the flat hierarchy so different from Britain.

Very nicely put Netherlands.

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Photos

Tramlines
Congested in Amsterdam

The Base
Near Amsterdam Schiphol airport