I get back to Ede after an eleven-hour journey and find that my car has been broken into. Not in the window smashed and the front seat is soaking after a week of rain sense – but in the sense that both front doors are unlocked and someone has tried to wrench the steering wheel of the chassis. This is inconvenient and annoying – not least because it is 7.10 on a Saturday evening and I had planned my trip back around getting to a supermarket before 8.00. The supermarkets close in 50 minutes – not to open for another 36 hours. And there’s no milk, eggs or alcohol in the house. Not wanting to go without basic home comforts for the weekend I decide to go for the bus- hope it gets me into town in time do a last minute run around Albert Hijn and worry about the car the next day, when its light, I’m not so tired and can make better decisions.
And the bus does get to Wageningen bus station at five to eight- from where A. Hijn is a one minute walk away. And I’m not alone. There are three other people from the bus dashing around the supermarket with their roller-suitcases in one hand and their trolleys in the other buying up last minute essential supplies before the Sunday curfew. And it makes me wonder why a country with such liberal and pragmatic views and policies on major issues such as prostitution, soft drugs and abortion adheres so rigidly to observing the Sabbath. It is of course always possible to but a few groceries at a motorway service station but the reason I am running around the supermarket at three minutes to eight is because my car is in the sick bay. Service stations apart there is nowhere where you can buy anything on a Sunday in the NL – outside of designated tourist towns, which have a special dispensation.
And I think it comes down to Sunday papers. The Dutch don’t have them. When I was a kid growing up in England in the ‘70s the only shops open on a Sunday were newsagents. They also sold sweets, ice creams and ciggies and, over time, they morphed into general convenience stores. This was the thin edge of the wedge of Sunday trading. When I first went to N. Wales in the 1980s Sunday was a “dry day” – when no alcohol was served (I subsequently learned that there ways around this if you became a member of a club). But even there the newsagents were open of a Sunday morning. Not that I am in favour of unrestricted Sunday trading. It just seems stupid that you cannot buy a pint of milk of box of matches on a Sunday here.
Back to the car story. I spend Sunday looking up key words in the dictionary before calling the breakdown service. Words like stelen (steal), sturen (steer) and, accepting the possibility of a worse case scenario, sloper (breaker’s) were duly memorised. On Sunday I prevaricated – big time. My logical mind says neither my mechanic nor the sloper will open on Sunday so I will not be able to make informed decisions. In reality it is my deeply ingrained mind-set of avoiding stressful situations and staying in my comfort zone that prevails. By Monday lunchtime I finally summon up the courage to deal with the problem- having run through all the possible worse case scenarios and their possible impact on my finances and/or future mobility. The breakdown service have a mechanic on the spot within 20 minutes. Within an hour he has dismantled the entire steering mechanism, sawn and filed out the damaged steering lock and put it back together again. I can steer the car once again: to the right and to the left. A new steering lock is required should I feel the need to invest ?? Euro in my 250 Euro car which has miraculously passed three road tests since I acquired it, but that decision can be made in the fullness of time.
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8 comments:
I'm glad the car part ended well, but I urge caution in the matter of promoting Sunday trading.
In the town where I live, all the shops open on Sunday. It is utterly indistinguishable from Saturday. I think there should be one day a week that is not dominated by the need to make, or spend, money.
I 95% agree. And I'm sure it helps promote family life when there is a day when family members can be together (Sunday you see so many couples and families out cycling here). It would just be nice if there were a few (family?) corner shops.
I'm really sorry to hear that your car was broken into: it happened to me on a trip to Italy last spring and, like you, I went through all the frustration, first with the stupid kids who did it just to steal a jacket and, second, with all of the services that have to be gathered to make things right again. I hope you're back on the road soon!
I see the Sunday shopping prohibition as more a matter of balance for the Dutch, like the firm "work / not-work" division. It's inconvenient, but both allow (and force) me to take time off. Overall, not a bad thing (although I've been caught out without food more than once).
You remind me how spoiled I am here in Den Haag - everything is open on a Sunday. In fact it's the busiest day in town.
Stumbled upon your blog, through Conortje and enjoyed your post. Have to say that I think shops closing on Sunday is brilliant, I loved it when I was a kid and the only shop open was the corner café (newsagent here) my dad always got the paper and my sister and I got a sweet! It is a memory that stands out while so many others are lost.
Sorry to hear about the car. What a pain that sort of thing is - I've been through all the broken-into car stuff myself a couple of times. I also agree with shops closing on Sundays so people can have a proper rest and family time. Here in Belfast they open but mostly for a few hours only. I've always organised myself so I don't have to shop on Sunday anyway. I have a fridge and freezer after all, and I drink soya milk which doesn't go off for weeks. Think of all those poor sods who would have to trek in to work on a Sunday!
Welcome theruleclan. Glad to have evoked some childhood memeories.
Judging by the comments Sunday trading is a divisive issue. I wonder if it is an age based difference?. Like I said I am 95% against it but then i am jsut against Babylon and its doings on principle. But you can go too far. I was in the Western Isles (Scotland) once and people aren't even allowed to play golf and get this -even the childrens' swings are padlocked on a Sunday so they can't pay. At ten to twelve on a Saturday night you see people heaving huge rates of beer and a large bottle of Scotch into the car so they can get pissed in the privacy of their own homes the next day. I like the Southern Europeans take on this. Th shops are usually open on Sunday morning - which is often the busiest day in town - and shut thereafter. Of course this is the habit of largely rural agricultural societies. By contrast I have known my American friends bitch because you can't do house viewings on a Sunday here which he thinks is the logical day when the whole family is free.
In college I spent a few months in Groningen on exchange and never did get used to this! I remember walking (before I got a bike) a mile and a half in the rain to the gas station mini-mart at the edge of town on a sunday to buy smokes and "coke light".
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