pidgie65 wrote:

*waves to galphimia*

I'm American, but I've lived in the Netherlands for over 16 years now. Galphimia sent me a link to this site. I was not active in the forums at the pond but thought I'd dip my toes in over here and see how it goes.

Welcome Pidgie, whereabouts in the Netherlands?  PM me if you prefer.
 

I'm currently live in Garden Grove, CA. Will be moving to Las Vegas NV soon! (I'm thrilled about this move, by the way!!)

Last edited by SnowMeow (8/25/2013 3:16 pm)

I live in Exmouth, in Devon, in the UK.


It is a 5 min drive or a 20 min walk to get to the beech.

They are all raving mad.

On Christmas day ( The hight of winter) the whole town shows up for a christmas day swim.

barregar wrote:

pidgie65 wrote:

*waves to galphimia*

I'm American, but I've lived in the Netherlands for over 16 years now. Galphimia sent me a link to this site. I was not active in the forums at the pond but thought I'd dip my toes in over here and see how it goes.

Hi pidgie, Welcome, you can call me barre.  I have a friend living in the Netherlands, in Zoetermeer....of course I have no idea where that is, I've never been to Europe.  I do think that the Netherlands is a beautiful country with lovely tulips when they are in season.  I hope to visit one day.
 

Thanks, barre. Zoetermeer is near The Hague, a name I'm sure you remember from your history classes! At least if your history classes were anything like mine. 

I live much closer to Amsterdam than The Hague. There are loads of tulip fields (nurseries) around here, though, and in the spring, it's really something to see, as though the country is carpeted in tulips. If you do visit, be sure and time your trip around the time of Keukenhof:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keukenhof and www.keukenhof.nl/en/

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barregar wrote:

Hey pidgie, thanks for the link, those pictures are lovely.  Tell you the truth, I have no idea where The Hague is.....but I know Amsterdam is a popular tourist spot.  Is it true that a lot of people like to ride bicycles over there?  I think you have lovely countrysides for taking leisurely rides on a bicycle, past green fields, windmills, etc.  I think the architecture in Amsterdam is pretty neat too, I like the buildings there.  By the way, I love all of van Gogh's art......would love to visit the museum...I also love Vermeer.

Hi barre,

I work very close to both the National Museum (Rijksmuseum; several Vermeers, including The Milkmaid, which is just amazing)) and Van Gogh Museum. I'm not a Van Gogh fan myself, but the Museum is really great. The Louvre in Paris also has several of his paintings and I was totally impressed even though he's not my favourite artist.

Yes, everyone who is physically able rides bicycles and many people use them as their main mode of transportation. Even I do, and I hadn't ridden a bike for years before I moved here. The landscape is very flat, which took me many, many years to adjust to as I'm from a very hilly area in upstate New York. It's a fantastic country for raising kids. 

http://dapull.99streets.netdna-cdn.com/i/aa/bicyle_parking_garage_amsterdam_da-300x225.jpg

That is the bicycle 'parking lot' at Amsterdam Central station.  Edit: Sorry, it's actually a parking ramp. Those two levels you see in the background are also filled with bikes, I'm not sure the image is big enough to see that. And there are cycling paths everywhere. You can literally cycle from one end of the country to the other, there are maps for every route you could possibly take.

Another edit: I refer to Paris here and I realise that must sound 'braggy' or 'name droppy', but it's less than four hours away from Amsterdam by train. The Netherlands is a very tiny country, if you drive pretty much in any direction for two hours you're either in the ocean or another country.  Going to Germany or Belgium is an easy day trip, so it's not as fancy as it may sound.

Last edited by pidgie65 (8/27/2013 2:11 pm)