Archive for 'Culture'
Another Weird Island In Dutch Waters – Forteiland Pampus Posted by Sten on Mar 26, 2016
Another weird island in Dutch waters! Previously, I talked about the weird “eye” in the IJsselmeer, the IJsseloog. Now, I have discovered that there is another such a weird island in the Netherlands! It is a weird oval, in the middle of the IJmeer, with a weird grey oval on top of it… Who made this island…
A Legend Has Left Us: Johan Cruijff Posted by Sten on Mar 24, 2016
Today, on March 24, 2016, one of the most famous and loved BN’ers (acronym for Bekende Nederlanders (well-known Dutch people) passed away. Johan Cruijff, also spelled as Cruyff in English, died fighting cancer at the age of 68 in Barcelona, Spain. It might be that you have never heard of him, but any Dutch person has…
Book Review: The Latecomer by Dimitri Verhulst Posted by Karoly Molina on Mar 16, 2016
De Laatkomer or “The Latecomer” for the English translation by Dimitri Verhulst is a witty yet serious novel. Verhulst was born in Belgium on October 2nd, 1972 and published his first book Assevrijdag in 1994. By the time he published De Laatkomer, Verhulst had published 17 other novels, poetry collections and plays. The summary for De Laatkomer said the following: a…
5 Ideas For The Empty V&D Locations Posted by Sten on Mar 4, 2016
Earlier this week, I explained what happened to V&D and how the company went bankrupt. A real shame, and maybe it is a bit early to think about this, but every day these buildings are closed and unused is a day of opportunity lost in many city centers in the Netherlands, so let’s check what…
Follow Up: 4 Things I Dislike about the Netherlands Posted by Karoly Molina on Mar 3, 2016
Last week I wrote about 4 things I disliked about the Netherlands, and I must say I was quite happy with the number and the variety of the comments the post received. Several of you included things you dislike about the Netherlands that I didn’t write about so I would like to compile everyone’s comments…
Het Schrikkeljaar – 3 Questions Answered About The Dutch Leap Year Posted by Sten on Feb 29, 2016
Every four years – except century years, unless they are divisible by 400 – we have a schrikkeljaar (leap year). 2016 is one! Today, it is one of the rare schrikkeldagen (leap days), and this has implications of course! Also in the Netherlands… 1. Waarom houden we schrikkeljaren? (Why do we have leap years?) I think this video explains perfectly why…
How V&D Went Down Posted by Sten on Feb 29, 2016
Vroom & Dreesmann, or V&D is as Dutch as klompen, or cheese. Every medium to large city in the Netherlands has a V&D in its city center. They sell everything from writing utensils, books to clothing, pans and food. Well, I should rephrase this. Because something bad happened to V&D. As you might already guess from…