The Netherlands was in a frenzy last Friday. Talk about having a schizophrenic weather...I left for school early morning to be swamped by rain and by the afternoon, I with several friends struggled our way to a friend's place, because of heavy winds. What was supposedly to be a good ten minute walk turned out to be such a struggle with all of us wet and bitterly cold.
Barely an hour after having our nice cakes and coffee at our friend's place, snow started to fall.
How nice I thought,
snow in November! In my almost five years of living in this part of Europe (the Netherlands and UK), I have never experienced snow as early as November. It did feel strange to see the first snowfall this early, but somehow this brought some nostalgic feeling when I experienced snow for the first time, similarly during this time of the year, on thanksgiving day some ten years ago. This started my love and hate relationship with winter, at least while living in the Northeastern. I do love snow and its picturesque sceneries, but totally abhored it when I had to travel amidst a blizzard. In some way, living in the UK and the Netherlands is a good compromise, as winter is not as harsh as in the Northeastern states of the U.S.
However, Friday turned out to be pretty much chaotic. The Netherlands was not prepared for its first snowfall, that it literally brought a lot of disruption to train services, hundreds of kilometers of traffic throughout the day, commuters stranded out in the cold and a power failure in some places. Within our neighbourhood, the fire brigade was busy till late at night clearing out roads from fallen branches.
I told my husband that it surprised me somehow that for all it's supposedly "organized and efficient" ways, the Netherlands seems to have failed to respond appropriately to a few inches of snowfall, which by Northeastern states standard would be considered a light to moderate snow fall. By early morning, most of the newspapers ranted how the Netherlands was brought to a standstill by the wintry conditions.
I was so relieved that my husband decided to work at home, otherwise he would have been one of the unlucky stranded, suffering commuters who spent their night in their cars. I would certainly have worried myself to death if I knew my husband would be in that situation.
On the contrary, it was a good opportunity for us to enjoy the start of the weekend, amidst the mystery of the first snowfall--warm, comfortable, with a good mug of Dutch old fashion hot chocolate.
Barely an hour after having our nice cakes and coffee at our friend's place, snow started to fall. How nice I thought, snow in November! In my almost five years of living in this part of Europe (the Netherlands and UK), I have never experienced snow as early as November. It did feel strange to see the first snowfall this early, but somehow this brought some nostalgic feeling when I experienced snow for the first time, similarly during this time of the year, on thanksgiving day some ten years ago. This started my love and hate relationship with winter, at least while living in the Northeastern. I do love snow and its picturesque sceneries, but totally abhored it when I had to travel amidst a blizzard. In some way, living in the UK and the Netherlands is a good compromise, as winter is not as harsh as in the Northeastern states of the U.S.
However, Friday turned out to be pretty much chaotic. The Netherlands was not prepared for its first snowfall, that it literally brought a lot of disruption to train services, hundreds of kilometers of traffic throughout the day, commuters stranded out in the cold and a power failure in some places. Within our neighbourhood, the fire brigade was busy till late at night clearing out roads from fallen branches.
I told my husband that it surprised me somehow that for all it's supposedly "organized and efficient" ways, the Netherlands seems to have failed to respond appropriately to a few inches of snowfall, which by Northeastern states standard would be considered a light to moderate snow fall. By early morning, most of the newspapers ranted how the Netherlands was brought to a standstill by the wintry conditions.
I was so relieved that my husband decided to work at home, otherwise he would have been one of the unlucky stranded, suffering commuters who spent their night in their cars. I would certainly have worried myself to death if I knew my husband would be in that situation.
On the contrary, it was a good opportunity for us to enjoy the start of the weekend, amidst the mystery of the first snowfall--warm, comfortable, with a good mug of Dutch old fashion hot chocolate.
6 comments:
hi! saw your name on Sha's blog.. snow...hope to experience one too..
i am so glad that i don't have to deal with snow, although sometimes it's also nice to have a change of scenery during winter. keep warm!
Yeah last Friday was madness especially in the eastern part of the country. The traffic was horrible, trains were down and passengers stranded and came home the next day.
I think NL will never be prepared for heavy snowfall or a snowstorm like what happened last Friday. Unlike other EU countries except UK, due to the moderate sea climate, snow doesn't come too often nor do they stay that long here.
I think 2 years ago, before you arrived, it snowed in October for a day... yeah just a day, lol. And 2 years ago, winter was really cold like -5 to -10 but less snow. You can imagine the lakes and canals frozen but not enough to hold the elfstedentocht. Jammer.
hi gail, yes experiencing snow for the first time is quite an amazing experience. thanks for dropping by.
IG: you don't know what you're missing :-)
MissT: i heard it was a mess in Utrecht last friday. this is what i like about the netherlands--we don't really have to deal with a lot of snow during winter. i still hate the cold though!
Sha: wow, lucky you. can we trade places ;-)
yeah, talk about freaky weather. out here, some villages near to the border of belgium had to be evacuated for lack of electricity! there was a mad scramble to buy generators! (doesn't that remind us of home?! hehe)
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