A friend of mine from the US visited us for a couple weeks last month. The first week was spent seeing the tulips, and touring Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Delft using our apartment in Den Haag as base and the second week the 3 of us stayed at an AirBnb in London.
Although the flat averaged out to "so-so", there were some things about London that spoiled me and I'm still trying to get back into the Dutch groove. (Why "so-so"? The location was decent, very close to a tube stop, it had WiFi, a lovely terrace with table and chairs for dining al fresco, and it was an OK size. But my and hubs's bedroom was in the front of the flat and it sometimes sounded like there were no windows or that they were all open. It was a small street... was it really necessary to try to haul ass down it in their cars only to come to a stop 1/8 of a mile later? The neighbors above us seemed to enjoy doing laundry at 10pm which my friend could hear from her bedroom and which she said sounded like a helicopter taking off. The last couple of nights it was if a neighbor had just purchased a new entertainment system and was trying it out. We could hear what they were watching. The door to our en suite bathroom only shut if you pulled with all your might and VERY quickly as the door had swollen. Of course, when you did that the bedroom door popped open. The en suite bathroom was truly a "water closet", barely room to turn around if the door was closed, which it wasn't, cuz you couldn't. The sink was in this niche where normal people couldn't insert their shoulders without twisting their upper body - made brushing teeth interesting. And the water in the en suite bathroom was just warm enough to take a shower... although I noticed the pipe between the on/off control and the temperature control was very hot... so I'm not sure where the hot water was actually going)
But I digress... why was I spoiled????
1) English. It was EVERYWHERE! Most of the people spoke English first, not another language first and then repeating what they just said, with a 'tude, in English. I finally realized I didn't have to try and translate what they were saying - lol. And the signs were in English. I could read what was written without whipping out my phone and frantically typing into Google translate. It was a nice little vacation for my brain, ears and eyes.
2) CONDIMENTS! One thing that got my friend the most during her week here in NL was that many restaurants charge for condiments. She asked me a couple times why they did and the only answer I could provide was "cuz they can". I've looked it up on the internet and could not find a reason for why they charge. But... be warned. If you are addicted to ketchup and you want to visit NL, bring your own. Trying to get condiments in NL reminds me of a Jim Gaffigan joke: 'the guy handing them out always treats you like you're taking from his personal stash. "Looks like my kids aren't having ketchup tonight."' But in London... OMG! It was there! On the table! Waiting to be used!! As much as you wanted!! For ZILCH, NADA, €0, £0, $0... Gratis! FREE! 🎶"as free as the wind blows... as free as the grass grows..." 🎶 oops... sorry about that. Got a little carried away.
3) The sidewalks... they were actually being used as... SIDEWALKS! And ONLY sidewalks. I almost fainted. Sure, I was dodging people on the sidewalk, but they were SUPPOSED to be there. I didn't have to keep an eagle eye for dog poop. I wasn't stepping around parked bikes or mopeds or vehicles. I wasn't being run down by bicyclists. It was so weird! What a novel concept. The sidewalk is for pedestrians only. It's not an alternate commuting surface or parking area. It's for people... to walk! Why, just today I was facing down a deranged fietser on a narrow sidewalk because they didn't feel like biking on the road... where all the other fietsers were biking. Hubs made some comment about the bicyclists knowing where they should be biking in NL, to which I replied "Yes... any flat surface". And, it's true, they will literally bike anywhere as long as it's flat.
There was definitely a smaller number of bicyclists in London. Like.. I could almost count on 1 hand the number of bicyclists I saw in a given day. But 1 of our tour guides was quite proud of how many bicyclists there were. <snort>
4) OTC cold meds... Here in NL you cannot buy cold/flu/sinus meds over the counter like you can in the states. You can only get them via prescription (and that ain't gonna happen... paracetamol to the rescue!!!) Coming back to NL from the US after our Christmas holiday our suitcases looked like CVS vomited. But go to a drug store in London and... lo and behold... cough and cold medicine to be purchased without the consent of a physician. Good to know that I don't have to fly all the way to the US to get me some Dayquil.
So, thanks, London for teasing me with your more western ways....
🎶 so close, so close and yet so faaaarr 🎶
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