Holland

Get thee to the singles colony!

This entry was posted in Holland housing on by

Housing was a big subject in the politisphere last week, with lots of numbers being thrown around. This Dutch project sounds interesting as part of a possible answer.

The Heijmans ONE is a prefabricated home meant for residents who are young, single and just beginning to build their careers. This “not quite” generation, as the company describes them, has a steady job and makes a decent living, just not enough for them to live on their own in an expensive city.

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The idea is that the ONE houses will be constructed outside of city centers as a way to make use of underdeveloped plots of land.

It does conjure up visions of singles ghettoes, hidden away out of town. Which could be terribly sad, or ridiculously debauched.

Rotterdam in under 2 hours

This entry was posted in Holland Spinneyworld on by

Rotterdam is an unusual City as almost everything is new. I mentioned this to someone later in the day and they explained that the Germans bombed it heavily so few old buildings survived. There are a few remaining but they are squeezed in between modern high rise offices and flats creating an interesting mix of old and new.

My first stop of the day was the tourist information for a map then on to see the church on Binnenrotte. I took several photos here showing the church, some very Dutch buildings and a view looking back over the city. The thing that really struck me was the the amount of building work going on across the skyline as every road seemed to have a crane or 2 working away.

No time to stop so I headed on towards the Maritime museum. This looked interesting and had boats behind that could be visited, but no time for that today. While there I stumbled across a small but very attractive museum building hidden in the shadow of 3 skyscrapers. Photos were taken and I moved on again.

I headed west from here via the back roads. Wish I had more time as there were some interesting non-chain shops to browse. I then reached the park near “Club Vibes” (76 on my map) and took photos of the park and, yet again, the skyscrapers were in the background. Time was fast running out by now, so I dashed off and headed to my meeting.

Overall, it was an interesting tour and I would like to come back. There seems to be enough here for a long weekend though the lack of history caused by WWII might mean a week is too long. The night life looks good (the Wok restaurant on Coolsingel is worth a visit) and interesting shops are waiting to be discovered.

Rotterdam_Map

Originally posted to Spinneyworld 20/10/05 by Duncan

Anybody know which train for Schiphol Airport?

This entry was posted in Holland Spinneyworld on by

I really like Holland and, as Austin Powers would say, the freaky deaky Dutch. I got off the plane yesterday at Schiphol and was convinced I must be in the UK and I have yet to find someone who can’t speak English. The trains and taxis have, up untill now, been cheap + reliable as they speed through mile after mile of flat but scenic countryside.

But..

I got up early this morning and checked my PDA told the same time as BBC News. All fine so I set an alarm to remind me when I should head for my meeting with the bank and went to tour Rotterdam. At 10.45 I arrived for my 10.00 meeting and realised I had spent the morning in the wrong timezone (damn the cable tv). However, excuses were made so all fine so far.

After my meeting, I headed for the station to discover there had been an accident and my train was going nowhere. After much confusion, the freaky deaky Dutch came to the rescue and got me on a train to Schipol Airport via Utrecht.

I have, however, missed my plane home so once I finish writing, I’m going to have to spend 3 hours in a Dutch bar at the shareholder’s expense. On the whole, Holland is great- the people are friendy and the train service extremely reliable. If you can’t speak any other languages but want some culture, I’d thouroughly recommend.
(I’ll post details of my Rotterdam tour later this week)

Originally posted 14/10/05 by Duncan