A Dutch House Move Made Cheaper - Is it Working?

Photo: Chris Holder

For those of you currently searching for your dream home in the Netherlands the recent reduction in home transfer tax from 6% to 2% should be a welcome boost to a despondent house market. It's a buyer's market for sure and it just got more attractive to take a step on the property ladder.... as long as you can get rid of your current property of course. However, experts relay that the real benefit of this government move won't be felt until the final quarter of 2011 so house sellers will need to exercise yet more patience.

Estate agents say that viewings have gone up 25% since the government made the announcement. From personal experience we have seen no effect whatsoever of the promise of a lower property transfer tax (which can save thousands of euro on a house purchase). We have had no extra viewers at all. Mind you, it would seem that the entire Dutch population is on vacation somewhere or other because it is quiet all round so maybe once the school holidays are over normal business will be resumed..........

I know there's at least one of you out there trying to sell a property... anyone noticed a boost in house viewings and negotiations as a result of the reduced property transfer tax? Are you persuaded to buy a property because of the money you save by the lower tax rate?

A Chinese Takeaway - It's All About Adapting

Photo: Chris Anderson

Whilst I was in England recently we spent a day at Legoland in Windsor and by the time dinner time rolled along everyone wanted something quick and easy at the end of a long, tiring but fun day. A Chinese takeaway was in order. We ordered a set meal for the four of us and prepared ourselves to dig in and get chomping.

It turned out to be a thought provoking meal for me. I found the meal pretty bland in all honesty. There were no real recognisable spices to liven the meal up, nothing to set one dish apart from the other - except the fluorescent orange sauce that is common to all Chinese takeaway meals, no matter which country you order in.

Nearly eleven years ago when my Dutch husband (to be at that point - HTB from here on in) suggested getting a takeaway it was an eye opening experience. My first Chinese takeaway in the Netherlands. He showed me the menu and I looked blankly. Not only was my Dutch minimal at the time, but the words I did know didn't tally with anything on the menu except for kip and ui intermittently scattered under strange words which were apparently the meal titles.

Chinese restaurants adapt their food for the country they are in. That much I learnt very quickly. And of course, Chinese restaurants here in the Netherlands tend to offer a little more than just 'Chinese"; Indonesian, Cantonese and Thais or even Surinam specialities are common on a menu.

This is how the conversation to settle on some dinner went all those years ago:

Me: "Er.. are pork balls on the menu?"
HTB: Blank look
Me: "You know, pork in crispy stuff with sweet and sour sauce?"
HTB: "No."
Me: "Crispy duck with pancakes and plum sauce then?"
HTB: "Duck yes, with pancakes no."
Me: "Erm... anything that I might remotely recognise?"
HTB: "Nasi? Bami pangang?"
Me: Silence and a distant look whilst I contemplated the extent of my homesickness.....
Me: "Just order something...," I mumbled.

Nearly eleven years later, sitting in my dad's house in England I wondered how it was that the Chinese I was used to in England over a decade ago had tasted better to me than that first Chinese meal I had in the Netherlands. And how now, as I sat looking at Chilli Beef which had not been within ten miles of a chilli pepper, the Chinese food in the Netherlands was somehow now far tastier than the British Chinese offerings. More spices. More flavour.

A journey of adaptation. Getting used to something else. Something new becoming the norm. A simple Chinese meal made me realise just how far my expat journey has brought me.

A Service Station, But Not As You Know It

As I mentioned in my last post I just popped over to England for a week and during the journey through the Netherlands, Belgium and France ideas for blog posts came flooding in (writing them down whilst travelling on Belgian roads was a challenge in itself - but more about that in another post). One thing that came to mind was service stations.

Stopping off to fill up and stretch your legs - service stations
(c) The Writing Well

Coming from the UK, I grew up with long road trips broken by toilet breaks and lunches or suppers in service stations. The quality of the facilities was reasonable and there was always a fair bit to occupy a curious child during a stop off. The most exciting type of service station was one on the other side of the motorway - we needed to walk across an enclosed bridge stretching across the motorway. Trust me, as a child it was exciting...... really, how often do you walk over a motorway?

Nowadays, motorway services in the UK are more and more commercial and seem to resemble mini shopping centres, contain an array of eating options from the big fast food chains and beverage choices from the major coffee house companies as well as a petrol station to fill up at. They also contain arcade amusements, WIFI areas, picnic areas and some even have a hotel to rest your weary head in. Oh, and there always seems to be a man trying to sell you breakdown cover or a credit card.

In the Netherlands a service station seems to comprise a petrol station selling sandwiches and coffee, a toilet you have to pay for and in essence a car park that is a cross between a lorry park and a giant dustbin. This pretty much sums up service stations in Belgium too, though in my experience the toilet facilities in Belgium are generally not great (and maybe explains why you see so many Belgians using the car park as a public toilet) and many places also have a baffling voucher/turnstile system for the toilet. In essence you pay 50 cents and you get a voucher. With this voucher you gain entry to the toilet facilities and then use the voucher in the shop as credit towards a purchase. So if you were going to buy something anyway, you essentially wee for free.

And that brings me to France. There are two types of service areas in France - one fit for humans, the other less so. The "toilet block in the middle of nowhere" aires de repos areas are common and easy to find along the motorway. You can usually smell the toilets before you leave your car and my best tip is to watch the faces of others leaving the toilet block before you venture in. You need to supply your own toilet paper (the French know this but us tourists are often caught out) and a torch certainly comes in handy. There is generally nothing else there, except for maybe a child's play area and a bit of grass or a bench to picnic on. The second type are service areas (aires de service) as are common elsewhere in Europe with fit -for-use toilets, a petrol station, eating facilities and a shop.

Bon voyage!

What are service stations like in your home country? What are your experiences like of stop offs during road trips from the Netherlands?

Raising the Speed Limit: Dutch Motorways

Dutch Motorways - Speed Limit Changes
(c) The Writing Well

We've just come back from another trip to the UK. To get across the channel we used the Channel Tunnel and to get to the Chunnel we hurtled down many a motorway - in three different countries. In the Netherlands, driving along the A17 we noticed plastic covered speed signs that indicated a speed limit of 130. By the time we used the same road a week later on our return journey the plastic was off and the raised speed limit was in force.

It is part of a trial by the Rijksoverheid on a third of Dutch motorways. The aim is to shorten journeys and air quality, traffic noise and traffic safety will all  be monitored.

Here's what I observed from the passenger seat during the late afternoon traffic last Tuesday:
My husband, the driver, had to brake sharply a lot. Why? Because the A17 is two lanes. Whilst everyone in the left lane was driving the new speed limit of around 130, the cars in the right lane were not. So when they pulled out to overtake slow moving lorries and holiday goers with caravans the traffic suddenly had to decrease speed sharply. Safer? I think not. Quicker? Nope.

It seems a strange stretch of road to increase speed on given that there are only two lanes and the outer lane is constantly used to overtake slow moving traffic before pulling back in to the right lane. This is the only experience I have yet to have with the increased speed limit but so far the safety aspects don't measure up. I guess time will tell!

What about other roads where the speed limit is being trialled higher? Anyone got any experience?

Expat Forums: Think of Something New

Heard it all before?
Photo: Jean-Pierre Knapen

Have you ever read through an expat forum and thought,
    "I've read all this before! Stop whinging!"

You know the forums I mean: nothing but expats moaning about the locals, the culture, the difficulty in getting a pot of Marmite or their favourite pop drink. I have to admit that I gave up on general expat forums some years back when I realised how exasperating some expats can be - the ones using forums to let off steam rather than contribute helpfully to a discussion.

There are of course lots of forums and sites you can visit that are full of fabulous, helpful information where you can have a pleasant interchange with other people in the same boat.

Anyway, I read something on Twitter that perfectly summed up my feelings about some expat forums and I wanted to share it with you - it made me snigger!!

On the British Expats forum, an expat in New Zealand (going by the name of Dustybin) posted a discussion entitled "Think of Something New". It starts off like this:

"I've been on (on indeed not on) here for a couple of years now and as with all forums the same old things are brought up over and over again. (If you are ever bored find a vw van forum and start a thread about the nice bull bars on the front of your van and see what happens  )


A few examples that spring to mind on expats are:
1. NZ is pants
2. NZ is not pants


These first 2 are normally replied to with either:
1. You are a miserable sod therefore i shall point this glaringly obvious fact out to you.
2. You are far too happy and I am a miserable sod therefore I shall p*iss on your bonfire.


That covers the popular two.
The other themes that seem to circulate weekly are:


1.I have stuff already, will that stuff fit/work/explode in my face/make me the talk of the town and cause the local ladies to want to have my babies, when i get to NZ.
2. I dont have stuff, is there anything in NZ that might possibly be useful or will have to make my household appliances out of bits of twig, moss and spit.
3. I have heard that there are people who may be foreign living in NZ and i may have to interact with them. Is there a way I can avoid this, obviously i want to fit in, but only with people who are the same as me in every way. In fact can i be cloned to save me the trouble of starting conversations with smelly people."

Sounding familiar? Dusty Bin then challenges readers to try a different approach....... If you want to read more go to the British Expats forum page.