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Conference turris::scandia

Title:All about Scandinavia
Moderator:TLE::SAVAGE
Created:Wed Dec 11 1985
Last Modified:Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:603
Total number of notes:4325

86.0. "Amsterdam???" by STAR::MALIK (Karl Malik) Tue Apr 08 1986 15:48

    Subj; Amsterdam?
    
    	I know Holland is not part of Scandinavia, but the HOLLAND
    notes file is defunct.
    
    	If you feel this note is inappropriate for this conference
    please feel free to delete it (and my apologies for the intrusion).
    
    	I am thinking of taking an extended vacation in Amsterdam
    with an eye towards moving there.  I've never even been there
    and it might seem strange that I am considering moving to someplace 
    that I know nothing about.
    
    	Simply put, I am trying to find a very nice place to live,
    and enough information to convince me that it's worth the trouble
    and expense to go and check it out in person.  (The interesting
    American cities are too expensive and too dangerous for my tastes.)
    
    	1) Who knows anything about the DEC Training Facility in
    	   Amsterdam?
    
    	2) I'm told that $300 (American dollars) a month will get
    	   you a decent apartment.  True?
    
    	3) How much does it cost to ship things overseas?  Is it
    	   by weight?  Bulk?
    
    	4) So far, Amsterdam sounds like heaven to me:  Lots to
	   do (especially in the arts), low cost of living, and 
    	   relatively low (violent) crime rate.   
    
    	         *** What's wrong with the place? ***  

    	   No one has had a single bad thing to say.  Must be 
    	   something that I've failed to consider.
    
    						Many thanks, Karl
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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86.1Munich isn't in Scandinavia eitherMUNICH::ORAThis space intentionally left nonblankWed Apr 09 1986 03:3413
>    	         *** What's wrong with the place? ***  

                 Weather! I've been said it rains twice a year in Holland.
                 (Six months in a row each time).
    
    BTW, the main training facility is in Utrecht, not in Amsterdam,
    though it is not very far (nothing is very far in Holland).
    
    I would recommend Munich... this is of course a completely unbiased
    opinion :-)
    
    
86.2You could do worse than AmsterdamTLE::SAVAGENeil, @Spit BrookFri Apr 11 1986 09:4116
    Seeing as Dutch royalty has such an interest in Scandinavia [see
    Note 37.2], we should be able to accommodate a topic on the Netherlands
    :-).
    
    When I was travelling in Europe in the 60s, Dutch people were working
    at upholding their country's well-deserved reputation as one of
    the friendliest in the world.  I met one fellow who had hitchhiked
    around Europe; he told me a story about a Dutch family who took him 
    back to their home, offered him a bath, and laundered his clothes.
    
    My first-hand experience (as a young man of 25) was with an airline 
    stewardess who has going off-duty and spotted me sitting by myself
    in the Amsterdam terminal.  She came back with a girl friend and
    the two of them invited me to a nearby coffee shop and kept me 
    company until my flight to Sweden was ready for boarding. [See how
    I managed to keep this note on the conference topic.]
86.3Soggy thumbs downZEPPO::BANCROFTWed Apr 23 1986 14:067
    Have been in A. thrice, 1956, 1957, 1975.  Rained each time. For
    all I know it rained all the time in between.  Dutch are great,
    the adults anyway.  Kids made Yank kids look good.  The Dutch kids
    seemed totally spoiled.  In 1975 I had my own kids along.  THEY
    thought the Dutch kids obnoxious.
    Hyper liberality on drugs seemed to be ruining the place, too.
    Good luck,  (I liked Munich MUCH better), Phil