Put away the bucket and hose, Amsterdam now has its very own bicycle laundrette — taking the prize for the most Dutch thing we’ll hear all week. 🇳🇱🚲

Dutch citizen, Jeroen Buitenhuis, went the extra mile to find a solution for struggling folks who don’t have the time or space to clean their bikes at home.

Well, in a country renowned for having more bicycles than humans, a fast-and-friendly bike washing service can certainly come in handy! 👌

500 bikes cleaned, 23 million to go

Nederlanders are flocking to get their bikes cleaned, with Buitenhuis already polishing over a whopping 500 different bicycles. 😮

“Every day, people come in and see a bike wash on the window. They ask, ‘is this what I think it is?’ and immediately make an appointment. Some even come from Rotterdam and Utrecht,” Buitenhuis tells RTL Nieuws.

Are we really that surprised? When it comes to bikes, Dutch people can get a lil’ cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. 🤪

Apparently, this is not your average bike wash. Buitenhuis is willing to clean and polish each and every bike from frame to bell, ensuring that you’re left with a shiny, spotless bike for days.

READ MORE | Dutch Quirk #65: Use an e-bike when they’re older 

He even checked with professionals of Dutch bicycle racing team, JumboVisma, to master the art of cleaning bikes. A true connoisseur! We love to see it. 😉

“Road bikes and gravel bikes have an open chain. They collect dirt, get dirty and wear out. Then you risk throwing them away. So it’s actually very logical to clean that”, he says.

The origin of the bike laundrette

It’s common knowledge that a bike can only really live a long life if its chain is cleaned, de-greased, and re-greased on a regular basis. 

READ MORE | The flying Dutchies: 8 marvellous things about the Dutch and their bikes

However, when you live in a 19m2 apartment on the fourth floor, doing this isn’t exactly the easiest of tasks. Buitenhuis himself faces this and saw an opportunity to create change.

We’re hoping that other fellow Dutchies follow in his footsteps and that we’ll soon see more bike laundrettes across the lowlands.

We’ll be waiting for some of that world-class washing and detailing! ⏰

What do you think about this initiative? Tell us in the comments below! 👇

Children rejoice and parents panic: six schools in The Hague have switched to a four-day school week amid an ongoing struggle to find teachers.

The Dutch teacher shortage has pushed certain schools to cut back on working days. Instead, on Fridays, students still receive a home lesson programme — yay, we guess?

The Hague Schools, an educational umbrella organisation, informed De Telegraaf that at least six primary school classes are going through with this new schedule due to the shortage.

For now, the schools that took the drastic measure remain unknown to the public.

Fewer teachers, less education

The Netherlands has been struggling with a shortage of teachers for years. There are various job vacancies for teachers and other teaching staff in the Hague, writes RTL Nieuws.

A spokeswoman for The Hague Schools told De Telegraaf: “It is not the first time, and it will not be the last time that children temporarily go to school for four days instead of five.”

“We also have a substitute pool of employees that we can deploy, but that has also almost dried up. It is a very vulnerable situation.”

What happens now?

The PO council, the umbrella organisation of school boards for primary education in the Netherlands, assures that schools want to maintain the quality of their education.

The world has also learned a lot from online learning after dealing with the pandemic, so let’s hope that those home lesson programmes may not be all that bad. 🤷‍♀️ Otherwise, there are always good options for tutoring.

How do you feel about the teacher shortage in the Netherlands? Tell us in the comments below! 👇

Locals of the Dutch village, Albergen, are looking to buy a hotel to stop the Dutch cabinet from letting heaps of asylum seekers in.

According to the NOS, the residents are strongly against the cabinet’s decision to bring between 150 to 300 asylum seekers into 27 rooms in the hotel — and are determined to buy the entire building.

Locals seek a solution: protests

It’s said that the hotel was already sold to the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). Dozens of locals are peacefully protesting around the hotel.

READ MORE | Netherlands turns to cruise ships to help host asylum seekers

“I don’t know if that is still possible. But if so, there are sufficient financial options among the residents to actually take over the hotel and give it another destination”, spokesperson, Hennie de Haan, tells RTV Oost.

“There was no other way”

According to De Haan, Albergen is not against asylum seekers and has welcomed them to stay in the hotel before. 

However, this time, the residents feel strongly opposed because the cabinet failed to ask for permission from their municipality before deciding to bring asylum seekers in.

READ MORE | Hundreds of tents confiscated by police at Dutch asylum seeker centre

“It does not fit that the State Secretary just throws this over the fence,” says alderman, Bekhuis van Tubbergen. 

The State Secretary responded to the locals’ frustrations, saying that they had no other choice than to allow the asylum seekers in because the Netherlands is just so full, and there’s nowhere else for them to go.

What do you think about the Albergen residents wanting to buy the hotel? Tell us in the comments below! 👇

Local entrepreneurs raised money to buy tents for asylum seekers sleeping outdoors in Ter Apel, Groningen. However, Dutch police removed them from the site late last night.

The asylum seekers’ centre has been overcrowded for months, and this was the second time that people had to sleep outside.

It was estimated that around 250 asylum seekers were going to have to sleep outdoors, RTL Nieuws reports.

No room inside

This was due to the fact that there was simply no more room within the centre. However, a campaign was launched to try to help.

Entrepreneurs in the area raised €12,500 with a crowdfunding campaign to buy tents, which they then handed out on Monday evening.

However, last night, the mayor of Ter Apel and the security region decided to remove the tents. A spokesperson claimed the tents cause safety and hygiene problems, among other things. “We don’t know what’s going on in the tents.”

“This is not the solution”

“We really appreciate what these entrepreneurs have done, but it doesn’t offer the solution or make the work here easier.”

Police asked asylum seekers to return the tents in the middle of the night.

De Mobiele Eenheid is begonnen met het verwijderen van blauwe tenten die met het geld van een crowdfunding zijn gekocht.

Asielzoekers mogen wel voor het aanmeldcentrum blijven slapen.#rtvnoord pic.twitter.com/I1STTVRGoG

— Martijn Klungel (@MartijnKlungel) August 16, 2022

“The Mobile Unit has started removing blue tents purchased with crowdfunding money. Asylum seekers are allowed to stay overnight in front of the application centre.”

Frank Candel, director of the Dutch Council for Refugees, spoke to the local broadcaster RTV Noord: “This is inexplicable, this is terrible. I do not understand how you remove tents and do not provide a bus to take people to a hotel. Instead, 300 people are told: the tent has to go, but you can sleep here. But where?”

According to a spokesperson for the municipality, an emergency shelter was sourced for 60 people outside the asylum seekers’ centre. Everyone else, nearly 250 people altogether, spent the night outdoors.

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