Where fresh flowers are a luxury in most parts of the world, they are on every street corner in Amsterdam. Literally. And cheap too: a nice bouquet will set only you back around 7 euros. This ties nicely into the fact that we like things to be cheap.

Tulips

Jokes aside, the quality of flowers in .nl is awesome and we are lucky because of it. The florists have been very succesful at marketing the message that you “say it with flowers” (zeg het met bloemen, since replaced by the current slogan gek op bloemen – crazy about flowers). Hordes of tourists come to our Keukenhof, which really is quite spectacular to see. Every other year an event called the Floriade is held, showcasing old and current flowers in a big way.

Marketplace

The biggest marketplace for flowers is called Flora Holland. This is an auction where grower meets wholesale. The scale of this operation is immense: every day at 5 AM or so a fleet of trucks comes in and unloads the flowers, the same day a different fleet leaves the terrain and ships the flowers worldwide. The fact that they are immediate neighbours of our largest airport Schiphol helps, too. On a smaller scale, flowers can be purchased on regular markets, in supermarkets, gas stations and on just about every streetcorner in large city centers. Amsterdam even has it’s own flower market (Google Image Search) where you can buy either fresh cut flowers or bulbs, ready to be taken on your airplane home.

Pink Gerbera

So where do all these flowers grow? During spring and summer, huge polders near Aalsmeer and Lisse are dedicated to flowers. Funny thing though. The flowers themselves are cut and discarded. It’s the bulbs they are after. This is the reason this part of Holland is called “bulb area” (bollenstreek). The flowers you can buy are also grown in the bollenstreek, but not on such a massive scale. You can buy flowers throughout the year in Netherlands, and this means in winter they are grown in greenhouses.

Klompen come in super handy in wet, grassy lands with a risk of a cow stepping on your feet. Coincidentally, this is quite typical for Dutch soil. They are made from soft wood, typically willow, by hand. In ye olden days, klompen were the only shoe for country folk. You had your working clogs during the week and pretty clogs for Sundays. (More on Wikipedia.)

Dutch klompen

Quaintness aside, klompen can be a darned practical form of footwear. Indestructible (by bovine means at least), easy to wear, cool in summer and warm in winter. Walking in them takes a bit of practice, but can be learned by anyone. The secret is curling your toes when you take a step.

Touristic oddity

As one of the prototypical images of .nl (next to windmills and tulips), klompen are where tourists are. If you’ve ever visited this country, you have seen them. The klompen you have seen are not worn by anyone though–although definitely wearable, they are touristic oddities. Actual Nederlanders in need of klompen buy them in a local, usually nondescript, “ye olden klompen shoppe”.

Again, Dutch klompen

Should you go for the genuine cloggie experience, observe a few ground rules. Typically, the more decorated a klomp is, the less it is worn. All-black klompen are mens, to be worn on a Sunday. To church. Lacquered klompen heavily decorated by flowers are womens, to be worn on a Sunday. To church. Klompen with faux laces (a print or painted on) can be worn by anyone. White-wash klompen too, but usually indoors. Finally, the unpainted and cheapest klompen are worn in the field minding livestock.

You might be shocked to hear that almost every taxi in Nederland is clean, a Mercedes Benz and has a very capable driver. In 2000, the taxi system was liberated. No permit to ride a taxi was nessesary and prices were “free, but regulated” (maximum set by the governement). This quickly turned out to be a disaster.

Taxis (yes they're German, it's a stock pic)

Since no permit was required, anybody with a driver’s licence could call himself a cabbie, and many did. This led to market saturation, traffic jams in city centers, incapable drivers but strangely not to lower prices. The gov’ment adopted a laissez-faire attitude and things got ugly real quick. Especially in the bigger cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where there would simply be too many taxis, drivers would fight to get a ride, jam up the street and take longer routes than needed.

Who knew that deregulation would lead to chaos? Still every few years, attempts are made in the public sector. Invariably they fail. Hmmm…

Reregulation

So after a while local governement got sufficiently fed up with the ‘deregulated taxi market’ that they invented a couple of rules of their own. You might call these rules ‘regulations’ but strictly speaking it’s something completely different you see.

A permit is no longer required, but a ‘token of good behaviour’ has taken its place. This token is not required to operate a taxi service, but as a driver, you need it in order to stand in one of the municipal taxi queues. See how that works? When the token gets revoked, you can still drive a taxi, just not pick up customers easily. Well, duh.

Hailing a cab

In cities, your best bet is always one of the large companies with easy to remember phone numbers. In Amsterdam it’s TCA, in Rotterdam RTC. Get ready for a sticker shock as the initial rate is now €7,50. This (admittedly steep) amount should last you the first 2 kilometers. Reputable drivers are allowed to drive on tram tracks, so that should speed up your journey (watch for a permit with traffic signs on the dashboard).

At your destination, pay cash. Taxis love cash. Cash is king. Did I mention you should pay in cash? (Some cabbies will allow credit cards though).

Outside the city

In smaller cities it’s more common to order a cab by phone. Dial the company, state your address and your desire to book a taxi. Other than that, it works the same as in cities. There’s taxis at Schiphol airport too, right outside the arrivals hall. Don’t pick the first one in line, but choose a branded one. You should expect to pay around €40 euros to get into Amsterdam. There’s also airport taxis that do the trip for a fixed fee. But when you arrive at Schiphol, you should really take a train. It costs next to nothing and gets you at your destination quicker. It’s a shorter walk from the terminal, even.