The education sector is going into a big strike today and tomorrow, as almost half of all primary and secondary schools in the Netherlands are closing their doors, reports RTL Nieuws. There will be protests and marches happening in most major cities including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague.
“In 2020, 55,000 pupils in primary education do not have a teacher in front of the class and if we do nothing, this number will increase to nearly 240,000 pupils in 2028,” said the General Education Union (AOb).
More than 4000 schools close today
According to official figures released by the AOb, 4159 schools will be closed today. Teachers and other workers in the education sector are not going to be going in for their jobs today and tomorrow.
This “education crisis” has been going on for a while where the government is not investing enough money into the sector for wages, and the workload is too heavy to carry for the current teachers. Since 2017, the education sector has had 10 major strikes (including the ongoing one) where people did not turn up for their jobs, reports RTL Nieuws.
What is the government actually doing about the “education crisis” in the Netherlands?
Education Minister Arie Slob will be visiting schools in Zwolle, Oosterbeek, Rhoon, and Reeuwijk today to discuss this teacher shortage.
Right now, the government is willing to spend a total of 895 million euros in primary education, reports RTL Nieuws. They report the distribution as 700 million for lowering the workload and increasing wages. 38 million is allocated for “regional approach” in 2020 and 2021 and 78 million for “side intake”. They will be utilizing 74 million for training new teachers and 5 million for “teaching assistants going to the PABO”.
However, primary school teachers want 560 million euros more invested so as to have the same wages as their high school counterparts.
Do you support the strikes happening in the education sector? Let us know in the comments below!
6 Unmissable Dutch food festivals For the dedicated Dutch food connoisseur. Perhaps you’re still being initiated into Dutch cuisine. Keep in mind, not all events are free but all of them are delicious.
Me at a food festival.
If there is one thing the Netherlands has an abundance of, that is food festivals. We love them: they come, they set up shop and they feed us. Throughout the year, the Netherlands hosts an absolute moving feast! The attitude of “let’s do it because it will taste good” is the reason behind food festivals each year and it’s always hard to choose favourites. I encourage you to check all of them out, and there are plenty in the Netherlands in 2020. Often the festivals are specific to one city, or they have a theme, catch as many as you can, pencil in some dates. So, without further ado, a list of 6 unmissable food festivals and where to find them.
Amsterdam Coffee Festival
Where: Westergas, Klönneplein 1, 1014 DD Amsterdam When: 13th – 15th of March
For the caffeine junkie or the dark roast night owl, this is the one.
With experts ‘Urban foodies’ onboard, important players in the industry will gather in the spirit of sharing fine food, coffee, and chocolate. Whatever your palette, this one is happening early March and will surely generate a buzzing atmosphere full of art, music and positive energy.
The event will open to the public at 10:00 in the morning, on the 13th of March. It will last over the weekend, ending on the 15th of March at 17:00.
Get down, get your coffee buzz on and have a double espresso with a biscotti (or twelve).
Where: Dock Amsterdam, Joan Muyskenweg 14, 1096 CJ Amsterdam
When: Sat 11 April 2020, 13:00 – 21:00
This festival returns for its third edition, after two completely sold out editions. Expect a lot of diverse Indian food, from Tandoori dishes, Vegan dishes as well as Indian street food, all found in pop-up restaurants and food trucks.
Besides food, expect to find live performances, DJ’s playing Bollywood hits, as well as a great setting, which includes both indoors and outdoors. There will be other surprises as well, but you will need to go there to find out! (let us know as well)
Where: Many participating restaurants When: 9th – 15th March
So you hate seeing an animal fall under the knife, or maybe you’re climate sensitive, or maybe you just can’t stand the sight of meat altogether. Let’s just say you need to eat more greens because we all do. (Couscous: the food’s so nice, they named it twice), we all enjoy a nice falafel as well, but this time the restaurant game is being stepped up for a vegetarian themed week, there will be a lot of versatile and enticing recipes on display.
A whole lot of restaurants have shown out for the event. On this page, you will find an overview of all participating restaurants. It’s something to admire and a great excuse to get out next month and do something. Go enjoy extraordinary vegetarian dishes! You can thank me later, report back when you’ve eaten all your greens!
Where: Dock Amsterdam, Joan Muyskensweg 14, 1096 CJ Amsterdam
Enjoy this mix of culture and food at the new Japan Winter Festival! Including elements of Japanese lifestyle, you’ll find everything from cherry trees to winter games and a market.
There’ll be sushi, including vegan options, as well as ramen and other Japanese delicacies, there’s even gonna be a traditional tea ceremony.
Where: Radioweg 64, Amsterdam When: Saturday, 16th of May
Perhaps your belly is full after all this eating and you will want to down it with some good ole’ beer. Oost Tapt Festival is then the one for you. This festival promises lots of beer, music, chilling with friends as well as different group activities. There will be food as well, but the line-ups are yet to be announced.
Where: Grote Kerk Edam, 57 Grote Kerkstraat, 1135 BC Edam
When: Saturday, 7th of March
Another beer festival, but this time in a more urban, casual setting. Strongly recommended for beer drinkers, as people from around the region will bring their artisan beers, and you get the chance to speak with beer brewers themselves!
In the aftermath of the coronavirus spreading, the city of Wuhan finds itself in a state of total lock-down.
Foreign nationals from different countries are now stuck in the city, as national governments are sending planes to recover them.
Around 20 Dutch nationals still in Wuhan
Stef Block, the foreign minister of the Netherlands, said that the European Union has sent a plane en-route to Wuhan. A large part of the Dutch in the city wish to return back, yet it is not clear as of yet if they will board on the first plane arriving, or when they will leave precisely. So far, none of the Dutch present in Wuhan have shown any sign of illness.
The Netherlands and France have partnered up to retrieve their citizens. However, Chinese born spouses or children of foreigners will have to remain in China.
Even when they are returned, the Dutch nationals coming from China will have to go through a quarantine stage, for a minimum period of two weeks. They have been informed of these conditions through an e-mail from the Dutch embassy, as reported by RTL Nieuws.
Dutch umbrella association ANVR, a national and international representative of travel organization, strongly advises against any travel to China until at least the 29th of February.
The Netherlands stocking up on protective gear against the virus
Vos, the medical retail company, has said that as much as three times more protective gear is currently being sold in the Netherlands. This includes not only protective masks, but gloves and disinfectant gel. The customers range from Chinese people, buying it for their families back home or themselves, but also Dutch who travel to China or nearby countries. General practitioners and Dutch companies with Chinese branches have also been among the customers.
Bol.com has also confirmed a spike in sales of protective gear, with mouth masks increasing 50 fold since January 20, with some wholesalers struggling to keep up with the high demand.
Between 1942 and 1945, more than 100,000 Jews were deported from the Netherlands to concentration camps. Only 5,200 survived and Laureen Nussbaum and her family were some of the lucky ones. At age 92, she has written a book entitled “Shedding Our Stars” to document her extraordinary life.
The book interweaves her own life experiences and relationship with Anne Frank with the story of a German lawyer named Hans Calmeyer who took enormous risk and used his power to save roughly 3700 Jews from deportation and death.
How did Laureen become friends with Anne Frank?
At age 92, Laureen is one of the few remaining people who personally knew Anne Frank.
Laureen and her family first met the Franks in Frankfurt but were not that close. As Germany became increasingly anti-Semitic, the Nussbaum’s decided to move to Amsterdam and ended up in the same neighbourhood as the Franks, who also moved to the Netherlands. When recalling their time spent together, Laureen vividly remembers Anne acting in a play she directed in her parents’ home. She muses “(Anne) was alert and lively and learned her lines quickly. I had no idea that she would become famous!”
Hans Calmeyer: the unsung lawyer who saved thousands of Jews lives
We’ve all heard of Schindler but probably not Hans Calmeyer, the German lawyer who saved double the amount of lives that Schindler did.
Jews in the Netherlands board the train that is to take them to Auschwitz. Photograph from 1942 or 1943. Source: Rudolf Breslauer/Wikimedia Commons
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945, all Jews were forced to register the religion of their grandparents. Hans Calmeyer successfully argued that individuals should be permitted to challenge their Jewish status if it could not be proven that their grandparents were Jews. The Reichskommissar made decisions on behalf of people who challenged their Jewish ancestry and requested to be aryanised. Calmeyer, as head of the commission, adjudicated over 5600 cases and accepted two thirds of them, many of which were knowingly falsified.
Yet Calmeyer still rejected many racial reclassification cases, despite knowing this would seal a person’s tragic fate. Some people have questioned, why did he not save more people? Laureen addresses this in the book and explains that if Calmeyer accepted every application, this would undermine his credibility and most likely result in him being fired and prevented him from doing any good at all. Laureen says even after all Calmeyer did he never believed he achieved much.
One might wonder, does everyone have the courage to live as nobly as Hans Calmeyer? Laureen affirms “Hans Calmeyer was the exception rather than the rule”. He reflected upon and scrutinised what was important in life and stuck by his convictions.
Laureen and her sisters, early spring 1942. Source: Laureen/Supplied
A stroke of luck that lead to the very different fates of the Klein and Nussbaum families
Laureen and her family claimed that Mrs. Klein was not Jewish, meaning the children were only half-Jewish. Hans Calmeyer accepted this dubious case and “aryanised” Laureen and her family. This decision changed the course of their path and resulted in a very different fate to those living around them.
Children in Auschwitz. Source: Belarusian State Archive of Documentary Film and Photography
The Frank family were one of the unlucky families and went into hiding in the secret annex located on Prinsengracht in 1942. They hid there for two years until German soldiers stormed the apartment and transported each of them to various concentration camps. The only survivor from the Frank family was the father, Otto Frank. Contrasting the very different fates of the Klein and Frank families shows the barbaric nature in which thousands of Jews were murdered and the stroke of luck involved which saved others’ lives.
“We owed it to those who had been less lucky to make something positive out of our life together”
With this in mind, Laureen and her husband Rudi realised how precious life was. They both “felt that we had to incorporate the thwarted hopes and good intentions of the victims into our lives and decided to make a conscious and sustained effort to do that”.
Laureen and her husband Rudi remained close to Anne Frank’s father and this special bond was demonstrated when he was chosen as the best man at the Nussbaum’s wedding in 1947.
Laureen and Rudi’s wedding in 1947. Otto Frank can be seen in the background. Source: Laureen/Supplied
Overcome the discomfort and ask people about their grief
When Laureen and her husband moved to America, she says what she
“missed were in-depth conversations. No one asked how we had survived the war, which seems so far from the American shores.” She stresses how important it is to not shy away from asking people difficult questions and to push through the discomfort you may feel and let them “know that you care”.
Never succumb to the bystander effect
Calmeyer teaches us that evil can be resisted not necessarily by force, but by clever subterfuge. We must never get complacent and succumb to the belief that there is nothing we can do to help.
Laureen stresses this when she says “There is nothing as pernicious as the lame excuse: “What can I as an individual do?” People can undermine evil by sabotaging it and most of all, by banding together against it”.
Laureen Nussbaum in 2019 at the German Parliament with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the deputy chancellor Dr. Mathias Middelberg. Photo: Wikipedia/Svekli
Shedding Our Stars: A Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine by Laureen Nussbaum is available to buy now.
We’ve all been waiting for some proper Dutch winter this season, but beyond some (chemical) snow in Limburg, it seems we are on an outer trend towards spring.
So, what can we expect from the last month of winter? Weerplaza reports the following:
First week of February is somewhat business as usual
The weather will reach a maximum of 12 degrees in the upcoming first weekend of February. Expect instability, lots of clouds and rain, with the first Sunday, on the second of February, being especially wet.
On the first Monday and Tuesday of the month, the weather will be relatively high for the season. From Wednesday onward however, prepare your sweaters, as the nights will be quite frosty. Frosty weather will bring with it dry air, thus reducing the amount of precipitation
Mild weather and showers in the second week of February
Don’t get used to the dry weather. By the time the second week rolls in, there will be another period of temperature that is higher than average, up by 2 or 3 degrees Celsius. Chances are that we will see more rain in this period, brought forth by a western wind.
The third week will also be similarly mild, with slightly higher rain than usual.
Some spring by the end of the month?
There might be dry air and higher than average temperatures in the last week of the month. The dryness might continue in the first week of March as well, but as we all know too well in this country, it’s better to not get our hopes up too high in regards to the forecast.
Would you rather have a bit more winter, or should spring come around already? Let us know in the comments.
Thinking of going to Lowlands next year? Then you will also be visiting the “largest solar carport in the world”, according to Solarfields. This car park at Biddinghuizen will have a whopping 90,000 solar panels installed.
Do you know how much electricity is needed to power an edition of Lowlands? According to NOS, it is 300,000 kWh. They have been using generators up until now but thanks to this new carport, they won’t be needing those anymore.
“The park will be a roof with solar panels,” says Esther Terpstra of Solarfields. “When you visit Lowlands next year, your car will be sheltered under the solar panels. And at the same time power is being generated.” The solar park will generate enough electricity to power 10,000 households. The car park will be 35-hectare big and will have a capacity of 15,000 cars.
Lowlands director hopes that this will inspire young festival goers to take matters into their own hands and try to lead a sustainable life. He said, “If concrete measures are not taken quickly, our young visitors will experience the effects of climate change and environmental pollution in their daily lives.”
What do you make of this new move? Does it indeed inspire you to take steps yourself? Let us know in the comments below!
The year is in full swing, it’s February and we want free stuff, free events and at the very least a painless Valentine’s day. Is that too much to ask? We’re not looking for an overpriced cocktail or an entry fee of 7.50 euros because the best things in life, despite the cliche, are free.
What can be done on the cheap side and still be memorable? Here are 5 free things to do in February in the Netherlands:
Melkweg Expo: Bad Feminist
So this is actually a great idea for two reasons – 1. Melkweg is by all standards a cool venue, and 2. The band is kickass with singing socially relevant songs and bringing everyone along with the feminist dream.
This year, the expo will be celebrating 50 years so don’t miss it this year! It’s going to be a special one.
Free Cheese, Free Chocolate
Okay so this is actually all year round but it’s one to try if you’re a fan of either cheese (um, yes) or chocolate (a thousand times, yes). Tony Chocalonely factory and Amsterdam’s Cheese Museum (who needs Valentine’s day when you have cheese and chocolate, right?). If you want to sample more than a couple of times, come back in a disguise and pretend to be a tourist that just rolled into town (I hear it works a charm).
We get it, people are in love (ugh). Maybe you’re in love right now and you don’t even know it. Well, whatever your plans were (or weren’t) here are some romantic ways to spend Valentine’s day in the Netherlands without spending a dime.
What about a beach walk? There are plenty of beautiful beaches here in the Netherlands and provided it’s not raining, then that could be damn romantic. Or a visit to Scheveningen maybe?
Chinese New Year
In the mood for another New Years? Still burnt out from the last one? Whoever you are, it’s widely agreed upon that fireworks and fried noodles were excellent cultural contributions to life on Earth. There will be food, drink, dressed up performers and plenty to do at a Chinese New Year celebration.
For years now, every Wednesday is the free Lunchtime concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. According to their website, “The concerts range from public rehearsals by the Concertgebouworkest, to chamber music performances by young up-and-coming artists.” Be sure to get there with plenty of time to spare because they’re quite popular and it’s a first-come-first-serve kind of system!
So there you have it, 5 free things to do in February in the Netherlands. Enjoy your freebies! What are you planning on doing this month? Let us know in the comments!
It’s happening again! There are no trains running to and from Amsterdam Centraal. According to NOS, there is a “major signal and switch failure”.
If you’re on the morning commute to the capital of the Netherlands, you’re in for a shocker. The Dutch railways believe this problem will cause disruptions until 11:30 am, so inform your professors, bosses, and teachers! You’re going to be late today.
Update: The trains will be back to normal at 10:30 am.
Like many famous locations around the globe, Amsterdam has been hit hard by over-tourism. From tourists peeing in canals to people being disrespectful towards local etiquette, it is clear that Amsterdam needs to find solutions to curb the influx of tourists coming into the city.
Overtourism has become a problem in many places, yet what makes it problematic? After all, on paper, tourism is good for the local economy, and it’s a great opportunity for showcasing the best a country has to offer.
Our team has went in-depth to try to understand better this phenomena, so check our very own DutchReview take on the tourism crisis in Amsterdam.
Did you enjoy our video? In what kind of funny tragicomedy situations did you find yourself with tourists in Amsterdam? Let us know in the comments!
From the 8th of February until the 16th of February, work will be done on the railways around Leiden Centraal, causing a whole lot of trouble and hassle to commuters.
NS will complicate the life of many travelers in two weeks from now, as work on the lines will lead to diverted routes as well as taking the bus.
What do we know so far?
ProRail will carry out work on the tracks in the north and east of Leiden Centraal. NS recommends avoiding rush hours during week days on all lines going from, to, and through Leiden Centraal, as well as The Hague Centraal to Rotterdam Centraal and Haarlem to Amsterdam Sloterdijk.
Those travelling from The Hague Centraal to Amsterdam Centraal are advised to take the route via Utrecht Centraal. Rotterdam Centraal to Schiphol to Amsterdam Centraal will be best taken with a direct Intercity train.
Because there will be large crowds of people, travelers are advised to take into account that the trains will be full, and therefore there will be a lack of seating space available. There will also be time delays while travelling, with the Leiden Centraal – Schiphol line having a delay of up to an hour during rush hour. (beware those who are taking a plane)
So how will the travel schedule look like?
There will be no trains running from Leiden Centraal to Alphen aan den Rijn between the 8th of February and 14th of February, buses will be deployed instead.
Buses will be used also during the weekend of 8th and 9th of February, as no trains will pass through Leiden.
Some restrictions will occur during the 8th and 9th of February also on the line between Hoofddorp to Schiphol Airpot towards Amsterdam Zuid.
Intercity trains will be the only ones running on Monday, the 10th of February, passing through Leiden Centraal. Meanwhile, the sprinters going from The Hague Centraal through Leiden towards Haarlem will be replaced by buses.
Fewer trains in general will pass through Leiden from the 10th of February to Friday 14th. It’s best to check the schedule in NS in the days before that week to check exactly which trains will run.
For two hours at night on the 14th and 15th of February there will be no trains passing through Leiden, and there will be further detours.
Finally, between the 15th and 16th of February there will be no trains between Leiden and Haarlem, with buses taking over the line.
It’s best to check out the NS website when this week comes around, as the above schedule might also be subject to change.
Will your commute be affected by these changes? Let us know in the comments.
