A tip for people, especially women, who don’t want the stress about finding a toilet during a day trip: buy a museum-jaarkaart. Then every museum turns into a great public toilet. Except on mondays when most museum are closed. Then you are on your own.

The reason why I always try to be the first person to arrive at a birthday party? So I don't have to congratulate everybody when I come in and make a huge round but they come to me because I was already there🤣

I was in the US once maaany years ago when I was 18 or something. I was invited to a birthday party. I didn't know anyone so I started shaking everyone's hand, congratulating them and inteoducing myself and how I knew the birthday guy. All of them looked at me like i was crazy and told me it wasn't their birthday party. And I was like ok duh I just told you how I know Alex, I know it is his birthday not yours. And then much later I found out that this isn't normal in most of the world. Oops.

How those towel dispensers work is they reroll themself on a different spindle inside (it basicly a one way VHS) so when it all used, a new roll gets put in and the other one gets taken and washed.

We're a boston couple that relocated to eindhoven. Its so awesome watching your shows now that we are actually here. This country is a dream!!

Your 'Goedemorgens' are getting better every episode!

Actually the reason bikers feel safer in the Netherlands is that there’s this traffic law (article 185) that calls them the ‘zwakke verkeersdeelnemer’. This puts a lot of the liability on the ‘stronger’ traffic like cars, busses, lorries etc., because weaker traffickers can be hurt easier. And btw: goeie goeiemorgen zeg!

Someone else mentioned it already. Stoofvlees isn't usually prepared with horsemeat but with beef. Eating horsemeat isn't usual at all. What I can get in the supermarket is sometimes "paardenrookvlees" which is meat to put on top of your sandwich. That's all.

We also offer our condolences to everyone at a funeral, including the coffee waiter, whom we usually mistake for som distant cousin we haven't seen in a while. ("Can't he wear something other than black? It's a funeral! Try to stand out if you're staff.") Seriously, some things are lost in translation. We don't say birthday, we say verjaardag (anniversery) which literally means the day one becomes one year old, not older. The custom dates back to times when 50% of newborns would die within the first year. If they survived that, neighbours, friends and family would gather at the infants house and convey their happiness (felicitations) to every member of the family as well as any other who cared enough to show up. Celebrating every following birthday past the first came later, as did the habit of including the birthday-boy or -girl in the round of felicitations. The first year they would've just stared at you wild-eyed and smacked their lips, which isn't very satisfying.

Have you experienced the Dutch Birthday Circle yet? When the friends and family come over they start with a little circle of chairs in the living room. Then some more folks come, chairs are pulled up and added to the circle, which is now a bit larger. And then some more folks, and chairs. Sometimes the chairs from the shed in the garden needs to be collected as well, and fitting the circle in the livingroom becomes really tight. Until some new folks come and it does not exactly fit anymore, but some others are stuffed on bitterballen anyway so they go home and the chairs get new occupants. And eventually, as the birthday party ends, the circle will get smaller again because the empty chairs will be removed. Empty chairs are not gezellig, at least that is what my grandma used to say. It never seemed weird to me, until a friend who was not Dutch was being flabbergasted about that weird ritual.

the congratulating thing with birthdays is very alien to my Dutch family, we never do that and I never encountered it until I was an adult and lived on my own in a different part of the country. my family only says congratulations to the actual birthday boy or girl (no matter their age)

New (American) subscribers here! After spending ten days in Kaatsheuvel, Sevenum and Amsterdam on a recent trip - and coincidentally stumbling across roughly half of the items on your ‘unexpected’ things list - we fell in love with the Netherlands and are genuinely hoping to move there in a few years’ time. 🥹 Loving all of your pro tips and experience vlogs! We’re working our way back through your past videos to get as much intel as possible haha excited to follow along with your journey as expats!

Congratulating everybody is because you must assume that everybody present is happy that the one having the birthday is getting a year older. Besides that, it also is a good way of introduction to the group. It makes mixing in easier.

Did you hear about the Brit meeting a Dutch Horse breeder? Brit: What do you do for a living? Dutchie: i fok horses. Brit: Pardon!? Dutchie: Yes! paarden. 😄

The origin of “iedereen feliciteren” lies in the decency to greet everyone in person. Over the years this has evolved from saying hi to gefeliciteerd. Even with the three kisses 😊 To make things more complicated, there are some cultural differences within the country. In Limburg feliciteer je alleen de jarige.

Youre dutch is getting beter every video keep it up ❤

At the butcher you can/could find paardenrookvlees, it is sweeter than the normal rookvlees. There is also paardenbiefstuk (horse steak).

You guys are looking more healty and glowing each vid .

When talking about the Birthday habits in The Netherlands, do not forget the so called ‘Circle Of Death’, which is the weirdest habit of The Netherlands: Everyone sits in a chair / couch, all together in kind of a cricle. You get your ‘kopje koffie’ or ‘kopje thee’ and your ‘appelgebak’ or ‘slagroompunt’ and then the converstation starts. You’re surrounded often by people you never met and you’re expected to socialize and keep the conversation going. Hence the ‘circle of death’ naming. A lot of the Dutch do not even realize it, how awful it can be. 😂😂😂

I have lived in New York City for almost 24 years now, but I am originally from (first Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht and then) Dordrecht, and I really love seeing all those familiar places in Dordt...!

Amazing! I learn something new with every video you make. Bedankt!

Ow damn that was a perfect "goedemorgen"

6:39 I mean, surviving a full year is quite amazing when you think of it.. but also, "feliciteren" (coming from the French féliciter) means to wish someone luck, which makes a bit more sense. Although it's also used to congratulate someone with an accomplishment, which can be confusing for people who use different words for those two things in their native language. By the way, some Dutch-speaking people would say "Proficiat!" instead (from the Latin proficere, making progress) , but I believe that's more common in the southern regions. Regarding what was said about congratulating everyone at the party, maybe there are people who do that but in my experience it's usually limited to family members / spouses etc. And it probably varies a bit what kind of crowd it is. But it certainly is a thing. I sometimes send friends a message for their kid's birthday, maybe you could see it a bit as an extension of that.

Kinda felt old when you hit the bathroom infinity towel - because that was the default in public restrooms in the USA when I was a kid (1970s). Paper towel dispensers were a whole new type of magic.

Horse meat was traditionally eaten by the poor in the Netherlands. My nan used to get quite a bit of it. In the past, farm and cart horses who were at the end of their lives were butchered for that purpose. It still happens in a smaller scale. The good thing about horse meat though, is that most horses had a good life. They were fed the best food and not stuffed with medicines like antibiotics like some farm bred animals are. From a health perspective, it's a better option.

Nice video! I would like to add something on the "congratulating thing" I think it's a etiquette that's mainly used in de Randstad. I have family in both the province of Drenthe and Noord-Brabant. They usualy enter and say Hello to the whole room and then walk to the birthday boy/girl. The woman from my side of the family even think it's rude! I couldn't care less... I do it the way i learned and they do it their way

Paardenworst is great and finding a good one is difficult in Utrecht you have one really traditional one which also sells horse steak sometimes, but it is only open a few days a week, funny anekdote my grandparents use to live very close 1 street down and when I was a kid many many years ago there always was a straydog waiting every staturday for a little piece. Many years on the shop is still there and still sells great sausages

9:22 The word "stoofvlees" is used for a meat stew in general, what you'd see most commonly is beef. Zuurvlees is a traditional version of that from Limburg, which seems to be commonly made with horse meat (although I'm not an expert). There was an incident with Ikea serving there meatballs with horse meat some years ago as well. I believe they were forced to throw them all away, which was such a waste of perfectly edible food :(

One of the things specifically from where I live (Leiden), is the festivities on the 3rd of October. On that day, the city celebrates its liberation from the Spanish a few hundred years ago. And a tradition for the food is "haring met witbrood" and "Hutspot". I believe that it became a tradition because that was the first food the city found after being starved to death for an extended period of time... Pre-industrial age was a cruel time 😅

I once heard the congratulating everyone on the birthday of a relative started because infant mortality was once quite high so it was an accomplishment and good fortune if someone survived another year.

Now i am hungry for fries and zuurvlees. Great video. ❤❤❤

Horsemeat is also available in the form of rookvlees: thinly sliced smoked meat. Rookvlees from beef is common too, but more expensive.

Also mothers are highly congratulated on their Childrens birthdays. Because they did the work is what I was told.

When I think of America in September, I think of all those American soldiers who risked their lives to liberate our country in WW2 (Operation Market garden) . We are still grateful to America for that.

I am Dutch living in Romania... people love to wildpick here, gather mushrooms (you can eat all mushrooms, my grandmother said, but some just once :) They gather around in kitchens for a second round of eating like 20-20.30, and make tea, from a lot of loose herbs, and every one has their wonderbrew. I like that... its cozy. They also love to help out mostly, helpfull people. Also weird is Dutch abroad, they love to stick to their guns like celebrating kingsday... i could not care less.

stoofvlees and zuur vlees is beef.. paarden/horse meat is are here ..only in special places

You can tell you guys live in a big city cause those underground trash bins is typical city thing. Most Dutch have 3 (!!) different trashcans somewhere stored outside their house: an orange one for all plastic, a green one for all bio waste and a grey one for all the remaining stuff. And you have to put these at the side of the road based on fixed schedule. I even have an app from the trash collection company that informs on the evening before the collection to put the correct bin out.

The Dutch love their “drop” and good to know most train stations have paid urinals. Thanks for the episode!😊 the birthday thing… even some Dutch people find it odd….

Love the examples you brought up here, because they weren't what I was expecting, plus I learned some new ideas. Would love to see many of these things adopted in the Midwest USA (other than horsemeat and bathroom infinity towels). I had heard of the bike garages before. Those are cool. Public urinals are a weird, but logical public service. I suspect that if there is a big problem with public urination, this is a smart solution. The underground dumpster "drops" are such a smart idea for urban streetscapes. The restroom towel thing just seems overengineered. Just give us more restrooms without front doors. I thought the pandemic would have prompted more of those here in the U.S. I prefer paper towels. The air dryers operate at a frequency that hurts my ears and I'm not normally sensitive to those things.

Met een plasgootje (Plastic) kunnen vrouwen ook gebruik maken van een urinoir en staande plassen. Mooie uitdaging !

Regarding number 2: These do not roll around in the machine. The machine has a separate part for clean and used towel. When the clean bit is used, the cleaner takes out the roll. This goes through a cleaning process, which can be as easy as putting it in a washing machine and circulation dryer afterwards. That works great for smaller businesses. Larger public instutions usually send it to a cleaning company. Yes, you can also re-insert the dirty roll in the clean roll. That's not how these things are supposed to work.

As a skin therapist or “huidtherapeut” it makes me so happy to hear you about sunscreen, enjoy the sun people but do it wisely ❣️

Greetings from the UK. I happy to hear you are living in Dordrecht- that is where I studied my secondary school. I lived in Zwijdrect. Good memories! And by the way, I think you are noticing Dutch football fever this time of the year - now Oranje is playing in the Euro 2024.

6:23 I remember those chutes you just mentioned in our block near TheHage. As a kid in the late seventies it was fun to go to the elevators and in a side wall there was this bottom hinged door. The trick was to give your trash some initial velocity and hope for an empty bin beneath to get a loud BANG. There were times I walked up the stairs a few floors to get extra speed e.g. BOING. But the eighties and onwards I did not see those chutes anymore. When the door wasn't bricked over, it was welded shut. In our block of flats, the word was those were abandoned because a child climbed in and fell down the shaft.

Hey guys i saw you where in Dordrecht. My hometown! Nice tip: There is a butcher shop in town that sells horse sausage and it’s very tasty. In the past, it was very common to eat horse sausage because it was cheaper than beef.My grandmother always bought it for birthdays

There used to be a butcher in Arnhem who was kind of famous for his horse meat. He also gave a whole lecture about the history of horse meat to his customers. I don’t know if it’s accurate but he told me that the use of horse meat is customary in areas that were occupied by Napoleon’s army and it is not customary (and even sometimes frowned upon) in areas the French did not conquer.

2:19 ... that big white bike. That is mine. I always park it there.

horse meat use to be very common in Rotterdam, that because we had trams and cargo form import and export all pulled by horses.

And thank you for your videos about NL

Thanks for number #4! I’m really baffled that people congratulate EVERYONE in the room and this can only be a tradition in the north. I’m from Valkenburg and i’ve never seen anyone whishing someone happy birthday other than the birthday boy. I just wave to the people in the circle of death and shout “hello everyone”. Crazy to learn this tradition from your video.

I've used the retractable towel you described in HEL (Vantaa -- Helsinki Airport) since ~1992. And no -- it's never wet. Maybe you should get out more often :)))

Salty licorice is THE favorite in the Netherlands. Actually non-salty licorice is often called "English licorice"

Your comment on licorice and how people in The Netherlands are "used to it" from a very young age is very true. I am Dutch, but was neither born in The Netherlands nor did I grow up in The Netherlands. I was nearly 19 when I lived in Holland for the first time, and never managed to join the locals in their licorice fetish. I absolutely loathed the stuff from day one, and still do.

The towel in the restrooms should be dry. The part you use is oulled in on the back and when you pull you get a fresh dry part. You have to pull with both hands on the front top. Maybe if you pull on the lower part you pull the used part out. Whenball the fresh towel is used, the last part stays there or sometimes comes out and you have to tell the owner to put a new one in.

The idea behind the congratulations thing is because someone’s birthday should also be a big day for your loved ones so you also congratulate them with the nice occasion.

6:01 works the same way in Dutch suburbs - you have your own bin that you leave out to get emptied every week or so

5:58 those big trash cans are only in the city, in the countryside we have a simlar system where you bring out your own container.

About the towel dispenser in restrooms: I always do two or three drawdowns, in stead of only one.., to make sure that I get a fresh clean and dry piece of towel...

More than half of the Dutch people don’t want fireworks anymore. Horses, dogs, cats and wildlife are terrified. Also the fireworks are sounding more like heavy artillery every day.

At birthdays we congratulate everyone present because we all celebrate that our mutual friend or relative is still with us. So that is a celebration for all, not only for the 'feestvarken'.

the towel in those things is alwayd dry when I use them. Love them. Hate those blowers.

Very fun video! Gefeliciteerd.

The dumpster thing is a city/appartment area thing. With housing in NL you still have bins. Most people prefer them, partially because they're generally a ton cheaper. And most of those dumpsters don't actually have a small slot for random trash, so having to pay 5 bucks to open the thing for a little doggybag of things that attract flies you want to throw out of your appartment kind of sucks.

Always looking forward to your vids

Horse meat in supermarkets and snacks is usually from North and South America. Plenty of videos about the horrific treatment of the horses. In Nijkerk there used to be a horse butcher, I don’t know if it is still open.

30 years ago, they used to sell horse steak (paardenbiefstuk) at supermarkets. Unfortunately they don't do this anymore, because it's delicious!

Funny story. We rented a bike once on one of our USA trips. And I (luckily haha) didnt have to wear a helmet because I was over 18. But when they found out we were from The Netherlands I still remember them saying "Oh they're Dutch! They dont need helmets." 😂

In my opinion, congratulating the entire family and those present can be explained by the high child mortality and difficult circumstances for the average family in the past. See it as an achievement that another child has survived and is worth congratulating

With the birthday you forgot to mention that is it is you , the one who is having his birthday, who is supposed to serve treats at work instead of colleagues or boss giving the treats or get you a present. But I have found out that in recent years more and more colleagues at work collect money to get the birthday boy/girl a present, but it is still not that common.

Those fabric towel dispensers were once more common in the USA. They contribute much less waste to the landfills.

One thing here is completely incorrect: Horsemeat is pretty hard to come by except paardenworst. Zuurvlees and Stoofvlees are generally made with cowmeat. WHile horsemeat tastes absolutely AMAZING, it's only done by very few people.

The gefeliciteerd thing is subtle, you congrat the direct-of-kin but not other visitors that are not related. So girl/boyfriend? Yes. parents: yes. "Gefeliciteerd met je zoons verjaardag". But a friend? no. Collegues? No.

Thanks guys! Maybe somebody brought it up already, but the habit of congratulating everyone at a birthday is not a custom in the whole of the Netherlands. Coming from the south, I was also puzzled by it when it happened at birthdays in the 'Holland' part of the Netherlands.

About trash collection: If you don't live in the busiest parts of the city, or at least if you live in a family home, you do get your own trash bins. For me it's one for food and garden waste, one for plastic and scrap metals. And lastly 1 of those underground containers for any miscellaneous trash. Glass I will take to the grocery store as those always have a trash bin outside specifically for glass. (and they're even separated into clear and colored glass!) About birthdays: In my circles at least, it's customary to congratulate the birthday person and direct family, but not friends or uncles/cousins/etc. About sunscreen: Is it really that expensive here...? I mean, a bottle usually lasts me several years at least. So spending 15 euro or so doesn't seem that expensive. About horse meat in certain food: Honestly I don't mind it. Plenty of horses in the country, and they do die eventually. Why not use the meat at that point? Heck horse meat apparently actually becomes more tender if the horse has lived a long and good life.

I'm dutch, I have never congratulated a friend because it was another mutual friend's birthday. Not sure what that's about, maybe local differences? Entertaining videos, keep it up :)

Horse steaks are amazing!!!!!!!! I miss those. We had them in Belgium too, up until the 80's.

I remember the song, it’s great 😊 (but I heard it way later than ‘93)!

My personal hypothesis as to why you congratulate everybody is that it evolved from simply greeting people who you don't see often.

I've never had horsemeat in my life, it's more of a below the rivers NL thing with zuurvlees originating from the German sauerbrat.

You guys ….i love that song” wear sun screen”❤❤❤

Correction: in Belgium stoofvlees is cooked with beef and/or pig. It seems very strange that, in the Netherlands, they use horse meat!

If you're getting wet towel at the towel dispensers, yes, you're using them wrong. The used parts aren't supposed to come back. Also, stoofvlees is not necessarily horse, it's just any meat stew.

Just because the roads and cyclepaths are safe doesn't mean you can't come off your bike due to mechanical failure, skidding on ice etc I used to cycle without a helmet until I got thrown over the handlebars when a fir cone got trapped between the front wheel and the mudguard.

6:01 in smaller villages in the Netherlands trash-bins are also more common.

Goede morgen!

the sunscreen dispenser looks like it's an advertising post for an insurance company.

Those roleup towls are often used wrong. People tend to grap in the middle an pull. Then you also pull some of the used part out again. The rollup mechanism gets disturbed and doesnt role up the used part completely because the role up part is to long because the previously rolled up part is out again. If you only pull at the front you, you onlu pull out a new part so you have the dry bit. Because you only have the new part pulled out. its able to roll up as it is supposed to.

Been playing the sunscreen song a couple of times last week, gave me goosebumps that you would mention it. Keep up the good work and come visit Grateful Living once🎉

2:24 in utrecht we also have public bicycle parking garages

The retracting towel hand dryer and horse meat was around when I was growing up in The States...I didn't think any of it.

and we do eat licorice of the same reason as the dutch. Here you still can find licorice in some cough medicines. When licorice first was introdudeced in sweden it was sold in pharmacys as medicine just for cough medicine only, that was going on until 1950. Before it was known as candy.

Balkenbrei you need to taste it! With apple sirop

When you're having zuurkool or boerenkool for dinner in the winter . You should replace the rookworst with paardenworst. (cook / heat the paardenworst together with the zuurkool/boerenkool) Delicious imo !!

They also have free sunscreen stops at festivals now here too. just a market stand with people ready with sunscreen for ya.

I loved that buzz luhrman song. Bought it on a cd single back in the day

That's so interesting about horse meat! I went to a high school that had a vet assistant program, so we had cows, horses, goats, etc. Well one of my classmates brought a tubberware bowl of pulled horse meat (like pulled pork) and asked if I'd like to try it and I was surprised at how good it was lol. I'd definitely try it again.

There already is an invention for women, the 'plastuit' which allows women to use the men's public urinal as well. It's not that commonly used but I've seen ladies standing in the lines for the mens toilets holding one in hand. They told me it takes the right kind of clothing (jeans with zippers work though, dresses get more complicated) and some practice to do it without spilling.

Horse in stoofvlees/zuurvlees I think is a particular southern thing, like from Limburg, just like how you tried it in Maastricht.

It's funny how things change over time; I grew up in southern California during the '50s & '60s - none of us wore helmets when cycling and virtually nobody wore sunscreen LOL. I'm no in my 70s and still cycle regularly [in the UK - occasionally in the Netherlands on holiday] without a helmet. The UK definitely can't compare with the Netherlands when it comes to cycle infrastructure, but my impression is that most cyclists within a medium-sized town do not wear helmets - but most who cycle in the countryside usually do (along with the quasi-compulsory lycra LOL).

As basvanderwerff2725 explained, the described "infinite towel" is coming to an end. Michelle and Alex findings are not based on real life experiences, but on assumptions. So no wet towels but a clean area...or none when the towel runs out.