Chris Bertram wrote:SWMBO and I spent most of last week in the Netherlands. We took the ferry from Dover to Dunkirk, and drove up through France and Belgium, crossing into NL between Antwerp and Breda. Here are a few observations:
1) Belgian motorways often have wide central reservations, wide enough to place offside direction signs in, so you should have no excuse for missing your exit.
2) Antwerp's ring roads get *very* busy at rush hour. We ended up being diverted through the northern suburbs, taking in a tunnel under the Schelde en route.
3) Hard shoulders in NL are often designated as bus lanes "bij file", i.e. when there are queues.
4) There's often free parking in smaller towns, where I'd expect British towns of similar size to charge.
5) It's usually premium German cars that come up behind you at great speed - similar to the UK. Audi drivers, as ever, are worst.
6) If visiting Amsterdam take a public transport option. We tried two - on one day, we used 1-day travelcards, which cover all regional public transport for a full day, so we used the bus to get to Centraal Station, then trams to get to the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank Huis etc. This was EUR18.50 each. The next day, we used a P+R facility just off the A10 ring road. Here, return tram tickets to Centraal Station were EUR5.00 for two, but did not cover onward travel within the city. If you use the P+R as intended, for city-bound travel, parking is EUR1.00 only!
7) Bikes. They were everywhere, and almost all were the heavy-framed sit-up-and-beg type known as Oma-fietsen, or "Granny bikes". They were often fitted with baskets and/or child seats fore or aft, sometimes with a windshield as well. There were almost no Lycra warriors to be seen, though I did see a couple on an inter-urban route. The Dutch appear to prefer to keep athletic cycling off the public roads.
8) Scooters. Lots of these, usually in the cycle path, normally with no helmet, except for pizza delivery riders. Frequently ridden pillion.
9) Trams - narrow gauge compared with modern UK trams, therefore with narrower bodies, and felt a bit cramped inside. But frequent and convenient. We didn't try any other railed transport (Amsterdam metro or NS), and the town we stayed at did not have a railway station.
10) Buses - can use tram lanes as well as their own bus lanes. Both are controlled by dinky little signals known as "negenoog", or nine-eyed, as they can have up to nine small lights in them to indicate stop, give way or direction travel is permitted. When on the main carriageway, buses obey the general traffic signals.
11) Lifting bridges - plenty of these, though we were never held up by one. This is the Low Country, and you are never far from water. God made the world, but the Dutch built Holland.
12) Canals, drains and ditches - by the side of many roads, and rarely will you find a barrier or fence between road and a possible free car wash. Amsterdam was the exception to this, but even there the barriers are low, except over bridges.
All in all, driving was not difficult. The hairiest moments were on the Belgian motorways, and the lowest standard of motorway was the French A16 between the border and Dunkirk ferry port. The motorway between Utrecht and Amsterdam is magnificently wide, I lost count of the number of lanes across four carriageways at one point. Even so, there were episodes of congestion. NL is a very densely-populated country, especially within the "Randstad", the area covering Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam and The Hague.
Fun fact: Schiphol airport is about 3m below sea level, and is within the Haarlemmermeer Polder, a lake drained quite some time ago.
Any questions?
Im surprised with them scooters in the cycle lane s that you dont need a helment , if it was Greece id not be surprised .
I find a lot of the newer housing in the Netherlands pretty similar to UK housing .