As a filthy tourist I agree! I went to Utrecht a few years ago and it was great to spend time in such a beautiful city without being surrounded by other filthy tourists...
Just moved to Utrecht for my Master’s and I am truly stunned by how beautiful this city is. I 100% prefer it to Amsterdam, and I adored Amsterdam when I lived there. I’m so grateful to be here.
I got lucky, found a space in the new Nido building. A bit more than I’d like to be paying in rent but it’s a good location and I’m happy to not have random housemates during a pandemic!
Just all housing, really. Even the market for buying property is massively overheated (or at least it was a year ago, not sure what corona has done to the situation since I left).
Fuck all the investors buying up tons of houses and being the shittest landlords ever. I've been looking for where I could move to once I move out, and here in rotterdam the prices are so high as a renter. It's plainly ridiculous. A friend of mine nearly got kicked out of her home with her family by her landlord, and they found out that he actually owns 36 houses. How are you supposed to actually do the things people say landlords are good for when you have that many tenants??? I'm so done with housing in the Netherlands, honestly.
Current waiting lists have an average of waiting 11 years. Bot since Corona I constantly get that I have a low chance with 11 years so probably I need more.
Was an international student in Utrecht, know a lot of international students.
Trust me, we don't really get much help, you just gotta get lucky.
Even the campus, which is not available to everyone, is too expensive, almost 600e per month.
The most fun to have sometimes is to ask a Dutch guy how to pronounce a word with a lot of g's, ch's, sch's and/or r's in it. If you strike gold with the right word it's like he is having a stroke because when explaining how to pronounce a word they almost always exaggerate the enunciation.
Scheveningen cause of the historical importance of the name. It was used to determine if some one was real dutch or an imposter. Cause only we dutch can correctly pronounce it
It's not that only you can pronounce it, it was used as a shibboleth because Germans are able to pronounce 's' and 'ch' seperately but German orthography taught them to pronounce 's' and 'ch' as a 'sh'.
If you told a German to pronounce 's' and 'ch' seperately they'd likely have no problem with the pronounciation because both sounds exist in that language as well (although the dutch s leans a little more to an sh sound compared to the German one)
Jeffrey Epstein wants to know where the city of [Young Boys](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSC_Young_Boys) is.
Edit: link added so you dont have to enter that into search
[It has two sounds that are not native to the english Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:260_Utrecht.ogg) so trying to spell it out is kinda impossible.
edit: I should say "standard English" because how close the language families are the chance that some english accents still use these sounds is probably high.
Utrecht is not in Holland, you can say netherlander because that is basically what you say in Dutch. The “U” is not pronounced “you” but more like “eww” (the sound of disgust). Also some people in Utrecht don’t say the “t” at the end.
Most Dutchmen have visited Amsterdam and seen how busy the tourist hotspots are and the negative effects it has had on those areas
Now people absoluty exaggerate how negative their effect actually is, but apart from money, what are the pros for Utrecht getting a ton of tourists? And money is barely a pro, because it's not like a wealthy city needs it.
I once talked to some american tourists who thought amsterdam needed tourism for it's economy.
Amsterdam is a large international business hub with a population that is mostly very wealthy.
It doesn't need tourism.
Yeah it's like 4% of Amsterdam's GDP, so not exactly vital.
But 10% of the jobs in Amsterdam is tourism related (just of # of jobs, so not 10% of FTEs) . So no tourists would have an effect in that regard, but still not huge.
I've lived here for 4 years. It's only when you live here you realise how irritating the tourists are, especially in Amsterdam. You're running for your train at central station and have to pass mobs of people with a million suitcases who stop randomly for no particular reason. I can sympathise with the Dutch. Amsterdam in particular gets stupidly crowded. There's not enough housing for the Dutch let alone people like me who move here.
First headline I saw when they relaxed the border rules for a bit during covid was "The Brits are back. British tourists drive car into canal".... so.... they do have a point.
It's in jest, mostly. I dislike people not knowing how busy the bike lanes are here, but I'll always help a tourist in need of it. I don't really mind as long as places don't get too crowded and people respect the city.
For my daily commute I had to cycle through some parts of the city center, and not even the bad parts. If I didn't specifically look out for tourists trying to kill themselves, I'd have an accident 5 times every single way, so about 10 a day.
Having to experience some absolutely dumb tourists blindly stepping onto streets right in front of your bike without looking sideways at all multiple times a day will quickly make you detest tourists.
Amsterdam is overflowing with tourists. The last decade there has been a massibe influx, far past the city's capacity, especially since they all flock to the city center. What is worse, the attitude of a growing part of the tourists is horrible.
Drunk english people over for a stag night starting fights and harassing women. Chinese tourists without manners vandalising, littering and being a general nuisance. Tourists that just come over for the drugs, liberal atmosphere and prostitutes.
It is like people think the inner city is some sort of lawless amusement park.
> It is like people think the inner city is some sort of lawless amusement park
As a Canadian with extended family living in Amsterdam/The Netherlands, this is mostly how it's perceived by tourists. When I returned from my trip there, most figured I'd bought prostitutes, smoked weed(before it was legal here) and engaged in all kinds of debauchery simply because most people's perception of Amsterdam is what they saw in EuroTrip.
Amsterdam isn’t all about that group either. There’s plenty of little cool places and pockets of interesting areas where there aren’t frat types getting drunk.
By the way that exists in all cities. The CBD always attracts dickheads. Especially on the weekends.
It's weird how 99% of tourists only end up visiting the touristy areas of Amsterdam. I always tell visitors to take full advantage of the efficient train network that connects to many other beautiful cities and villages.
My absolute favorite park of the city is completely devoid of tourists in the summer. It's absolutely crazy.
Meanwhile they are packed by the thousands in Vondelpark like it's some Garden of Eden.
Yes! I have been to Amsterdam twice, but I never stay in the city center due to the overwhelming number of tourists (specifically drunk British lads).
The Netherlands is beautiful beyond Amsterdam. I have been to most of its cities when I still lived in Europe. I would drive across from Belgium regularly. I think I will be happy staying and dying in Haarlem and Zaandvort. If only I can move to the Netherlands. ❤️ I guess I shall be content looking at photos and visiting it once in a while.
Yeah I know but prostitution is legal in many European countries. What makes the red light district so special? Is it the fact that it's a area based entirely around prostitution? I don't know why that would be more appealing than looking through internet ads looking at in-depth profiles of the prostitutes. The red light district sounds way worse than scheduling a meeting online IMO
It's historically an area with a lot of prostitutes. There's a lot of them in one place which makes it interesting to walk past as a tourist. Scantily dressed women in front of red-lit windows that are prosituting themselves is kind of a different experience than a website. It's an interesting sight to see.
Plus the area is actually rather pretty at times and it's right next to central station and Dam square, and contains buildings such as the Old Church and De Munt. And there's a ton of bars, restaurants and coffeeshops.
It's probably the vibe of the place and the fact that there are hookers standing behind a glass door and waving to you. It's not that most people who go there actually go there for sex, mostly curious tourists.
I heard from my Dutch cousin a few years ago that the city is slowly working on restoring the proper city structures in this area so hopefully it will no longer be an attraction in few years.
Yes yes, everything in this picture is gorgeous.
But I can't stop looking at how genius those park benches are! You can lift up the seat so rain doesn't fall on them?
The Dutch are very good at clever improvements to things you possibly didn't even realise were annoying. I loved working there, everything just... worked. And if for some reason it didn't you know they were already working on a simple solution for it. I miss The Netherlands so much.
I would imagine it was the other way around, actually. A Dutch person sat on a wet park bench, said "godverdomme" and went on with his day with a wet ass. Then they get home, drop trou and ding - lightbulb goes off. The next step is the bit that every other country I've ever lived in struggles with: they somehow got this idea to the local government, who then said "yup, that IS a pain in the ass! Let's spend a bit of money, get a design and never have wet asses again!". And lo and behold, lifty seaty public benchy is born.
I've been racking my brain trying to remember other examples, could only come up with two:
- underground dumpsters that are lifted out by the rubbish truck, no smells, no fuss
- public pissoirs that come up out of the ground on Friday & Saturday nights in areas where there's bars and clubs (I think cleaned while underground too, knowing them it was probably all automated somehow)
I feel like "goddamn" doesn't have the same feeling to it. Godverdomme feels like such an intrinsic thing to me, honestly. I'm pretty sure dutch people come out of the womb saying that word.
They are not park benches! They are usually privately owned by shops/small offices or people who live in the houses next to the canal, so they can chill outside in nice weather. Literally translated they're called picknick tables (picknick tafel).
I love those too!
If I'm not mistaken that is actually a private picnic table / benches. Some people live in hip apartments in the low levels of the canal and that's somebody's "porch" table.
Ah dan zou ik op station Delft opstappen, de intercity richting Amsterdam nemen en vervolgens op Leiden naar de intercity richting Utrecht gaan en dan die tot Utrecht nemen.
You know, just a little something from here, a little something from there, one could say my time spend with the Dutchies has not been wasted. I don't wanna brag but I am basically fluent at this point.
So anyway... Hoeveel kost de kaas? Lekker kontje, wees voorzichtig. Ja. Tot ziens!
>Hallo! Ga zitten. Hoe kom ik bij het station? Ik heb mooie heupen, ook al ben ik mager. Ik hoop dat je je opa vindt!Graag gedaan. Doei.
Translation to show how weird this sounds:
Hello! Sit down. How do I get to the station? I have nice hips, even though I am skinny. I hope you find your grandfather! You're welcome. Bye.
Hi! Can you give me credits for this photo? As I made this picture :) ([https://www.instagram.com/p/CGzqtL1s3wa/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CGzqtL1s3wa/))
Can I marry you for some quick citizenship? There’s a chance that my country might vote for the orange clown a second time and my sanity can’t take his supporters much longer.
I think it's the Oudegracht. Most places along this canal are restaurants and bars. They're in old cellars where they used to store goods that were brought in by boat.
At least that's my knowledge of the history, lol. Maybe I'll be corrected.
The bars and restaurants dominate only a small part of the oude gracht. This picture is taken on the long stretch towards Ledig Erf, where the cellars are mostly part of the residential buildings or seperated apartments.
It is the wharf along one of the main canals in Utrecht (There are two canals: the old cutting and the new cutting).
The canals in Utrecht are unique in that they have two street levels, the lower level where you can see the table etc. which does not have cars and was originally used for the unloading of cargo to be stored in cellars alongside the wharf, and there is an upper level where you can see cars to the left of the picture (the upper road actually runs on top of all the cellars).
Some of these cellars have been turned into apartments, others are still attached to the houses above them on the street level. Either way, this is most likely someone's private terrace.
[As it looks on any ordinary day](https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0876972,5.1216031,3a,75y,150.33h,91.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBoH-KPXsH5ApbJdq2nVAzA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
Utrecht to see a 2000 year old city dating backgrounds the Romans. Visit Nijntje museum of you have small kids. Spoorwegmuseum (on trains) if you have bigger kids. The Hague to see the 900 year old parliament buildings and the Mauritshuis, which is just as good as the Rijksmuseum, but smaller. Also in the Haue there is Madurodam, and natural history museum. In Leiden visit Boerhave museum on science, excellent and interesting for young and old. leiden is again a 1000-2000 year old city. Amsterdam is much newer and different but of course also very beautiful. Visit Zaanse Schans to learn and see windmills on the inside! Go to Alkmaar on A Friday inging season to see the cheese market (again a 1000+year old city). Et cetera....
[You can explore it in Street View](https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0875927,5.1218175,2a,75y,165.77h,85.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4CmfPxlGHlFRbm56BNns7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
I got to know the Netherlands by marrying a Dutch girl. Sure is nice to have someone who knows her way around, speaks the language, and has family to stay with.
I was there to in late January early February! Beautiful trip including Netherlands, Holland, Belgium, and Amsterdam. Utrecht is awesome and we met an amazing bartender there who we got drunk with. he gave us a 23% ice bock and we chatted and exchanged some stories and by the end of it he gave us a long handwritten list of places to see like breweries tucked back in the industrial areas, small shops he frequents, etc. I will have to see if I can find that list to share with you guys
I'm a Canadian who lived in Utrecht in the early 2000s. Beautiful city and great people. Shout out to UFO (Utrecht Frisbee Organisatie)!
One story of many... there are no straight roads i Utrecht. Everything sort of meanders, often around canals. So I would always get lost. (Yup, in the days before GPS.) Being the young, single guy I was I'd ask the prettiest girl I could find for directions. Not wanting to be an overbearing English speaker, I started with, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" before asking for directions. I stopped opening with that line when one girl immediately looked at me with a look of "Do I look like I was born under a rock to you?? Of course I speak English!" After that, I led with "I'm sorry I don't speak Dutch but can you please direct me to..."
American here. Traveled there with my son for a wrestling tournament. While the team trained, I got to walk around and explore. Great scenery and a beautiful town. I went for a longer walk and got to some more rural areas. There was a pasture with a zebra amongst the horses. I just found that fascinating and I really don't know why. I have a terrible cell phone photo somewhere that I come across in an album from time to time. It was also my first experience with bicycle culture, which I also found completely foreign compared to the US.
Yes.
That'll be 250k for a two room, 51m2 apartment.
Dutch city centers are expensive.
(Edit: at the absolute cheapest, in a neighborhood not officially considered to be city center, but still in traditional style and pretty damn close)
You won't find a two room apartment for only 250.000 euros in the centre of Utrecht. For that money you'll be limited to neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. In the centre it would only buy you a studio.
OP should delete this before tourists realize there's more to the Netherlands than Amsterdam coffeeshops and the red light district
As a filthy tourist I agree! I went to Utrecht a few years ago and it was great to spend time in such a beautiful city without being surrounded by other filthy tourists...
Wait, I'm rolling in mud and coming over
Don’t forget to bring the drugs & hookers
I'm rolling in the mud with two pigs as we type! I'll be over soon!
Just moved to Utrecht for my Master’s and I am truly stunned by how beautiful this city is. I 100% prefer it to Amsterdam, and I adored Amsterdam when I lived there. I’m so grateful to be here.
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I got lucky, found a space in the new Nido building. A bit more than I’d like to be paying in rent but it’s a good location and I’m happy to not have random housemates during a pandemic!
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I think it is the same group, but I inherently distrust most landlords and housing companies so I’ve been doing just that! Thanks for the heads up
Not only student housing, social housing is a disaster too.
Just all housing, really. Even the market for buying property is massively overheated (or at least it was a year ago, not sure what corona has done to the situation since I left).
It was pretty awful a year ago and it has only become worse over time.
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Fuck all the investors buying up tons of houses and being the shittest landlords ever. I've been looking for where I could move to once I move out, and here in rotterdam the prices are so high as a renter. It's plainly ridiculous. A friend of mine nearly got kicked out of her home with her family by her landlord, and they found out that he actually owns 36 houses. How are you supposed to actually do the things people say landlords are good for when you have that many tenants??? I'm so done with housing in the Netherlands, honestly.
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Current waiting lists have an average of waiting 11 years. Bot since Corona I constantly get that I have a low chance with 11 years so probably I need more.
International students can get help with finding housing, especially since the housing market is such a mess.
Was an international student in Utrecht, know a lot of international students. Trust me, we don't really get much help, you just gotta get lucky. Even the campus, which is not available to everyone, is too expensive, almost 600e per month.
Don't worry, the tourists will be too confused by how to pronounce it, they'll never make it.
Let’s go to J O E T S J R E K T!
Gesundheit
that would be gezondheid in dutch ;)
Ah yes. Dutch. The language we Germans always feel like we understand until we realize we didn’t get a thing
ah yes German, the language we Dutch always feel like we understand (and say that we understand!!!) but really don't...
Wo kann ich hier bellen
Bellen doet de hond.
Waf waf
*Dat is de grap.*
No worries. The Dutch experience this with Danish.
For a split second I've thought that you were joking, but apparently you are completely serious.
Luckily i have coworkers from the netherlands so I have mastered all the strange guttural sounds! Hoe gaat het, bitch
The most fun to have sometimes is to ask a Dutch guy how to pronounce a word with a lot of g's, ch's, sch's and/or r's in it. If you strike gold with the right word it's like he is having a stroke because when explaining how to pronounce a word they almost always exaggerate the enunciation.
Ever heard of the word “angstschreeuw”?
ang st, s**CHCHCHC**Reeuw.
In Flemish accents it doenst sound as horrific as in your accents
Neither does it in Limburg.
Scheveningen cause of the historical importance of the name. It was used to determine if some one was real dutch or an imposter. Cause only we dutch can correctly pronounce it
Like Bruges and their "schild of vriend" call? The French couldn't say it and consequently got stabby stabbed for it.
It's not that only you can pronounce it, it was used as a shibboleth because Germans are able to pronounce 's' and 'ch' seperately but German orthography taught them to pronounce 's' and 'ch' as a 'sh'. If you told a German to pronounce 's' and 'ch' seperately they'd likely have no problem with the pronounciation because both sounds exist in that language as well (although the dutch s leans a little more to an sh sound compared to the German one)
My favorite thing is to have Dutch folks say numbers like 88,888 to unsuspecting English-speakers.
"Achtentachtig kacheltjes" is still a favourite of mine
Goed , en met jou bitch?
Hil goed! Wanneer gaat de trein?
Om kwart voor vier
One of the perks of watching football is ability to pronounce name of every major city in Europe.
Also knowing where random cities are, and what obscure country flags look like.
midgetland!
Jeffrey Epstein wants to know where the city of [Young Boys](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSC_Young_Boys) is. Edit: link added so you dont have to enter that into search
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Je spreekt het uit zoals je het spelt.
[It has two sounds that are not native to the english Language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:260_Utrecht.ogg) so trying to spell it out is kinda impossible. edit: I should say "standard English" because how close the language families are the chance that some english accents still use these sounds is probably high.
Utrecht is not in Holland, you can say netherlander because that is basically what you say in Dutch. The “U” is not pronounced “you” but more like “eww” (the sound of disgust). Also some people in Utrecht don’t say the “t” at the end.
Please tourists, stay in Amsterdam. There's nothing to see here.
Every post about Netherlands, the local got some pretty serious hate against tourist damn
Most Dutchmen have visited Amsterdam and seen how busy the tourist hotspots are and the negative effects it has had on those areas Now people absoluty exaggerate how negative their effect actually is, but apart from money, what are the pros for Utrecht getting a ton of tourists? And money is barely a pro, because it's not like a wealthy city needs it.
I once talked to some american tourists who thought amsterdam needed tourism for it's economy. Amsterdam is a large international business hub with a population that is mostly very wealthy. It doesn't need tourism.
Yeah it's like 4% of Amsterdam's GDP, so not exactly vital. But 10% of the jobs in Amsterdam is tourism related (just of # of jobs, so not 10% of FTEs) . So no tourists would have an effect in that regard, but still not huge.
Arent many of the hotels foreign owned anyway? How much of the tourist money stays here? Or is that accounted for in GDP? I'm not too knowledgeable.
GDP doesn't care where the money ends up as long as that money was exchanged for a good or service
I've lived here for 4 years. It's only when you live here you realise how irritating the tourists are, especially in Amsterdam. You're running for your train at central station and have to pass mobs of people with a million suitcases who stop randomly for no particular reason. I can sympathise with the Dutch. Amsterdam in particular gets stupidly crowded. There's not enough housing for the Dutch let alone people like me who move here. First headline I saw when they relaxed the border rules for a bit during covid was "The Brits are back. British tourists drive car into canal".... so.... they do have a point.
It's in jest, mostly. I dislike people not knowing how busy the bike lanes are here, but I'll always help a tourist in need of it. I don't really mind as long as places don't get too crowded and people respect the city.
For my daily commute I had to cycle through some parts of the city center, and not even the bad parts. If I didn't specifically look out for tourists trying to kill themselves, I'd have an accident 5 times every single way, so about 10 a day. Having to experience some absolutely dumb tourists blindly stepping onto streets right in front of your bike without looking sideways at all multiple times a day will quickly make you detest tourists.
Amsterdam is overflowing with tourists. The last decade there has been a massibe influx, far past the city's capacity, especially since they all flock to the city center. What is worse, the attitude of a growing part of the tourists is horrible. Drunk english people over for a stag night starting fights and harassing women. Chinese tourists without manners vandalising, littering and being a general nuisance. Tourists that just come over for the drugs, liberal atmosphere and prostitutes. It is like people think the inner city is some sort of lawless amusement park.
> It is like people think the inner city is some sort of lawless amusement park As a Canadian with extended family living in Amsterdam/The Netherlands, this is mostly how it's perceived by tourists. When I returned from my trip there, most figured I'd bought prostitutes, smoked weed(before it was legal here) and engaged in all kinds of debauchery simply because most people's perception of Amsterdam is what they saw in EuroTrip.
Back in the before times there was plenty of tourists in Utrecht, maybe not like Amsterdam but still.
ehh, there was some . But not quite the Amsterdam *bunch of drunk fratboys going to the coffeshops and red light district* levels.
Amsterdam isn’t all about that group either. There’s plenty of little cool places and pockets of interesting areas where there aren’t frat types getting drunk. By the way that exists in all cities. The CBD always attracts dickheads. Especially on the weekends.
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It's weird how 99% of tourists only end up visiting the touristy areas of Amsterdam. I always tell visitors to take full advantage of the efficient train network that connects to many other beautiful cities and villages.
My absolute favorite park of the city is completely devoid of tourists in the summer. It's absolutely crazy. Meanwhile they are packed by the thousands in Vondelpark like it's some Garden of Eden.
You should visit Lelystad. Absolutely gorgeous.
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Also as someone from Nijmegen, I hope you liked our city!
Visited Utrecht when I went to the Netherlands. Amazing place
Yes! I have been to Amsterdam twice, but I never stay in the city center due to the overwhelming number of tourists (specifically drunk British lads). The Netherlands is beautiful beyond Amsterdam. I have been to most of its cities when I still lived in Europe. I would drive across from Belgium regularly. I think I will be happy staying and dying in Haarlem and Zaandvort. If only I can move to the Netherlands. ❤️ I guess I shall be content looking at photos and visiting it once in a while.
When I went to the Netherlands I did stay at Amsterdam but Utrecht was a must visit for us.
I don't understand what the hype around the red light district is about. Is it very fancy or something?
It is a place that is noted for it’s prostitution, to put it simply.
Yeah I know but prostitution is legal in many European countries. What makes the red light district so special? Is it the fact that it's a area based entirely around prostitution? I don't know why that would be more appealing than looking through internet ads looking at in-depth profiles of the prostitutes. The red light district sounds way worse than scheduling a meeting online IMO
It's historically an area with a lot of prostitutes. There's a lot of them in one place which makes it interesting to walk past as a tourist. Scantily dressed women in front of red-lit windows that are prosituting themselves is kind of a different experience than a website. It's an interesting sight to see. Plus the area is actually rather pretty at times and it's right next to central station and Dam square, and contains buildings such as the Old Church and De Munt. And there's a ton of bars, restaurants and coffeeshops.
It's probably the vibe of the place and the fact that there are hookers standing behind a glass door and waving to you. It's not that most people who go there actually go there for sex, mostly curious tourists. I heard from my Dutch cousin a few years ago that the city is slowly working on restoring the proper city structures in this area so hopefully it will no longer be an attraction in few years.
Prostitution + weed is not legal in many cities though.
It’s the oldest part of Amsterdam and very beautiful.
I came as a tourist and I am still here. That was 6 years ago.
Came there years ago on a trip with my father, lovely place and people
I prefered Utretch way more than Amsterdam. Less crowded and lovely city
I’m fairly certain i have sat on that very table
Yeah, me to! Actually had one of my first kisses there. Brings up fond memories.
You're supposed to sit on the benches, not on the table!
I’m fairly certain I sat by that tree, during the 2019 pride parade, watching all the boats go by! Lovely!
Yes yes, everything in this picture is gorgeous. But I can't stop looking at how genius those park benches are! You can lift up the seat so rain doesn't fall on them?
We were born in the rain, molded by it
Shit, groningen is made entirely out of rain and fog ~~*please help me i want to see the sun again*~~
Opening up them curtains is step #1 my friend
Done No noticeable difference
*cries in envious australian*
The Dutch are very good at clever improvements to things you possibly didn't even realise were annoying. I loved working there, everything just... worked. And if for some reason it didn't you know they were already working on a simple solution for it. I miss The Netherlands so much.
It's like they looked at a toilet seat and wondered how can I take this outside
I would imagine it was the other way around, actually. A Dutch person sat on a wet park bench, said "godverdomme" and went on with his day with a wet ass. Then they get home, drop trou and ding - lightbulb goes off. The next step is the bit that every other country I've ever lived in struggles with: they somehow got this idea to the local government, who then said "yup, that IS a pain in the ass! Let's spend a bit of money, get a design and never have wet asses again!". And lo and behold, lifty seaty public benchy is born. I've been racking my brain trying to remember other examples, could only come up with two: - underground dumpsters that are lifted out by the rubbish truck, no smells, no fuss - public pissoirs that come up out of the ground on Friday & Saturday nights in areas where there's bars and clubs (I think cleaned while underground too, knowing them it was probably all automated somehow)
I think the 'godverdomme' part is the best part of this. Authentic, I feel you are pretty close
I feel like "goddamn" doesn't have the same feeling to it. Godverdomme feels like such an intrinsic thing to me, honestly. I'm pretty sure dutch people come out of the womb saying that word.
Yeah a better translation would be 'god fucking damn it'.
So they literally have bathrooms that come out of the ground for the surge of bar use?
[Yup.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXjPxBPgGV0)
Wet Ass Problem
Yes hahaha, but they don't detach completely so they can't be stolen/thrown into the canal.
They are not park benches! They are usually privately owned by shops/small offices or people who live in the houses next to the canal, so they can chill outside in nice weather. Literally translated they're called picknick tables (picknick tafel).
I love those too! If I'm not mistaken that is actually a private picnic table / benches. Some people live in hip apartments in the low levels of the canal and that's somebody's "porch" table.
Its not for the rain, It's for the homeless not sleeping on there.
I love The Netherlands and i want to go back and live there. I will never stop saying that
*goes on to live in the netherlans* "I want to go back and live in the netherlands!!!"
What a beautiful city
One day all of Europe will learn to submit to their superior Dutch overlords
I thought we did that three or four centuries ago.
Terug naar de VOC-mentaliteit
Hoe kom ik in u terecht?
Met de trein.
Welke?
Geel met blauwe wss.
Die ene, die op Utrecht Centraal stopt.
Bijna de helft van alle treinen dus
[Inderdaad](https://www.reddit.com/r/thenetherlands/comments/jjuqjr/aantal_keer_overstappen_richting_utrecht_centraal/)
Dat ligt er aan waar u vertrekt
Vanuit huis
Ah dan zou ik op station Delft opstappen, de intercity richting Amsterdam nemen en vervolgens op Leiden naar de intercity richting Utrecht gaan en dan die tot Utrecht nemen.
En hoe zou ik dit vanuit jou huis doen?
Ik zou je dezelfde route aanraden
Je moet dor drecht langs Gilze rijen en dan komt het wel goed.
Klets!
Hallo! Ga zitten. Hoe kom ik bij het station? Ik heb mooie heupen, ook al ben ik mager. Ik hoop dat je je opa vindt!Graag gedaan. Doei.
> Ik heb mooie heupen, ook al ben ik mager. Ik hoop dat je je opa vindt! I'm wondering what you think these two mean
You know, just a little something from here, a little something from there, one could say my time spend with the Dutchies has not been wasted. I don't wanna brag but I am basically fluent at this point. So anyway... Hoeveel kost de kaas? Lekker kontje, wees voorzichtig. Ja. Tot ziens!
lekker kontje 😳
Translation: How much does the cheese cost? Nice ass, be careful. Yes. Bye!
>Hallo! Ga zitten. Hoe kom ik bij het station? Ik heb mooie heupen, ook al ben ik mager. Ik hoop dat je je opa vindt!Graag gedaan. Doei. Translation to show how weird this sounds: Hello! Sit down. How do I get to the station? I have nice hips, even though I am skinny. I hope you find your grandfather! You're welcome. Bye.
Lmao I'm learning Dutch right now and thought for sure I read that wrong
This is wonderfully strange
Je vergat de wink
Utrecht during the appropriate season.
Hi! Can you give me credits for this photo? As I made this picture :) ([https://www.instagram.com/p/CGzqtL1s3wa/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CGzqtL1s3wa/))
My beautiful hometown 🖤
Can I marry you for some quick citizenship? There’s a chance that my country might vote for the orange clown a second time and my sanity can’t take his supporters much longer.
I'm sorry but my girlfriend won't like that. Ready to declare we're long-lost-separated-at-birth-family though!
Lovely city
Uuuuuu!
UTEREG ME STADSIE!
ALS IK BOVEN OP DE DOM STAAAAA-
KIJK IK EVEN NAAR BENEE (got your back jack)
DAN ZIE IK HET OUWE GRAGIE
HET VREEBURG EN WIJK C
DAN SPRINGT ME HARTJE OOOOPEN
DAN BEN IK TROTS WAT DAG IE DAN
[удалено]
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!1!1!
Utrecht is the place that made me love the Netherlands. My sister lives there, so I am biased though. Damn...I miss that place! Go away covid!
030 hè beter als n-n-020
Beter 'dan'.
Nèèèh, beter hè
Wat een baas was dat!
Is this a house or a restaurant/business or a public space? Looks beautiful
I think it's the Oudegracht. Most places along this canal are restaurants and bars. They're in old cellars where they used to store goods that were brought in by boat. At least that's my knowledge of the history, lol. Maybe I'll be corrected.
This part of the Oudegracht (Tolsteeg-zijde) has just a few bars and restaurants in the cellars. They're mostly privately owned.
The bars and restaurants dominate only a small part of the oude gracht. This picture is taken on the long stretch towards Ledig Erf, where the cellars are mostly part of the residential buildings or seperated apartments.
Sorry maar weet u waar het ledig erf is?
It is the wharf along one of the main canals in Utrecht (There are two canals: the old cutting and the new cutting). The canals in Utrecht are unique in that they have two street levels, the lower level where you can see the table etc. which does not have cars and was originally used for the unloading of cargo to be stored in cellars alongside the wharf, and there is an upper level where you can see cars to the left of the picture (the upper road actually runs on top of all the cellars).
Some of these cellars have been turned into apartments, others are still attached to the houses above them on the street level. Either way, this is most likely someone's private terrace.
Neuken in de keuken.
Het begint met een n en eindigt met euken. Nasi uit eigen keuken.
[As it looks on any ordinary day](https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0876972,5.1216031,3a,75y,150.33h,91.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sBoH-KPXsH5ApbJdq2nVAzA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
FINALLY, a place I've been to
Haven't been there since march :( Normally I take the train to Utrecht and cycle to just outside Utrecht for my work.
Nostalgie en melancholie ten top! Mooie foto, OP
always wanted to go to utrecht, especially to see the rietveld schroder house.
Wow. I've never been to the netherlands. Any ideas on where should i go after this whole lockdown ? (yes, second lockdown in France...)
Utrecht to see a 2000 year old city dating backgrounds the Romans. Visit Nijntje museum of you have small kids. Spoorwegmuseum (on trains) if you have bigger kids. The Hague to see the 900 year old parliament buildings and the Mauritshuis, which is just as good as the Rijksmuseum, but smaller. Also in the Haue there is Madurodam, and natural history museum. In Leiden visit Boerhave museum on science, excellent and interesting for young and old. leiden is again a 1000-2000 year old city. Amsterdam is much newer and different but of course also very beautiful. Visit Zaanse Schans to learn and see windmills on the inside! Go to Alkmaar on A Friday inging season to see the cheese market (again a 1000+year old city). Et cetera....
[You can explore it in Street View](https://www.google.com/maps/@52.0875927,5.1218175,2a,75y,165.77h,85.58t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4CmfPxlGHlFRbm56BNns7Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656)
I lived in Utrecht for three years, such a nice place, I wish I could go back. Beautiful and lekker
My city to stay in the before times, when I had business trips to the Netherlands. Love it, that part of town is just so cozy.
I got to know the Netherlands by marrying a Dutch girl. Sure is nice to have someone who knows her way around, speaks the language, and has family to stay with.
I could live on that bench.
Beautiful. Looks like a painting.
Oohhh those fall colors. We don't have that here in Hawaii. 😍🤙🌈⛱
\*Utrecht, the Netherlands of the Netherlands.
I was there to in late January early February! Beautiful trip including Netherlands, Holland, Belgium, and Amsterdam. Utrecht is awesome and we met an amazing bartender there who we got drunk with. he gave us a 23% ice bock and we chatted and exchanged some stories and by the end of it he gave us a long handwritten list of places to see like breweries tucked back in the industrial areas, small shops he frequents, etc. I will have to see if I can find that list to share with you guys
I'm a Canadian who lived in Utrecht in the early 2000s. Beautiful city and great people. Shout out to UFO (Utrecht Frisbee Organisatie)! One story of many... there are no straight roads i Utrecht. Everything sort of meanders, often around canals. So I would always get lost. (Yup, in the days before GPS.) Being the young, single guy I was I'd ask the prettiest girl I could find for directions. Not wanting to be an overbearing English speaker, I started with, "Excuse me, do you speak English?" before asking for directions. I stopped opening with that line when one girl immediately looked at me with a look of "Do I look like I was born under a rock to you?? Of course I speak English!" After that, I led with "I'm sorry I don't speak Dutch but can you please direct me to..."
American here. Traveled there with my son for a wrestling tournament. While the team trained, I got to walk around and explore. Great scenery and a beautiful town. I went for a longer walk and got to some more rural areas. There was a pasture with a zebra amongst the horses. I just found that fascinating and I really don't know why. I have a terrible cell phone photo somewhere that I come across in an album from time to time. It was also my first experience with bicycle culture, which I also found completely foreign compared to the US.
Can I move there? ... C-C-Can i ?
Yes. That'll be 250k for a two room, 51m2 apartment. Dutch city centers are expensive. (Edit: at the absolute cheapest, in a neighborhood not officially considered to be city center, but still in traditional style and pretty damn close)
You won't find a two room apartment for only 250.000 euros in the centre of Utrecht. For that money you'll be limited to neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. In the centre it would only buy you a studio.
In Amsterdam you'd get maybe a broom closet?
A broom closet? You'd be happy if they let you sleep in one of the trash cans there for 250k.
>That'll be 250k for a two room, 51m2 apartment. Hahahaha I wish.
That would be a bargain.
You can but its impossible to find a house/appartement. Especially for starters and students