Just a short trip..and back.

Recently I took the plane to visit my family in the Netherlands. Flight just an hour, no frills, no thrills. Overall I am not happy in myself for having to take a plane because of the CO2 it undeniably pushes out of its engines. But the train from Wales is a no-go. Cardiff station is a nightmare, you have to traverse half of London by foot, bike, or taxi. Tube, whatever and St Pancreas to catch the Eurostar is another nightmare. If you plan you might find a train that actually goes to Amsterdam Centraal station but most likely you would have to change at Brussels. On top of all that the cost is much higher than flying. So, although being environmentally conscious the choice is rather limited. Anyway, having arrived at Schiphol I have to say that organisation is way above what we have to experience in the UK. About everything is signposted in about 2,000 languages and about everybody speaks English. The marechaussee (military border guard division of the Dutch army) was very fast, stamped the passport (Yes, I have a UK passport as well). I suppose they have to be as it was incredibly busy. Waiting times were experienced but no more than a few short queues lasting some 3 to 5 minutes. In the end I was at my son’s abode within 20 minutes after landing. That’s because he lives 6 miles south of the airport. The western part of the Netherlands is densely built up. There are still a few meadows with cows but the capital and airport are ever expanding. Industry and related offices abound everywhere, it’s not strange the place is a magnet for immigrants. Indeed, they have an even bigger problem than the UK.

Obviously, the amount of jobs available is hundreds of times greater than in good ol’ Wales. Even with the immigrant influx they seem to accommodate almost everyone. It makes you wonder why they want to come to the UK. In Wales there are virtually no jobs unless they are employed on zero-hour contracts and are willing to plod around in the service sector. Hence criminality is on the increase. It must be said this also happens in the Netherlands. Even worse, the East-European gangs have now established themselves. Romanians, Bulgarians and also Turkish gangs do good ‘business’. Despite curtailing the use of ‘hash’ in Amsterdam, drugs are widely available if you know where to go. One thing struck me and that is I did not see any pavement sleepers at all. I am sure there will be some, perhaps they are better controlled than in the UK.

One thing though, they have forgotten about nature. The western heavily populated provinces seem to have been given over to development. The big cities are ever growing as are the industrial complexes. The small townships around Schiphol airport do seem to house the majority of the airport employees. Another thing I thought rather amusing was the awful TV programmes. If we think the BBC and ITV are bad, well multiply this by three at least. It is total rubbish.

All in, it was an eye-opener. Especially as thanks to Covid we had not been there for a number of years. But yes, money rules and it does certainly so in the Netherlands.

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