Heemstede

The flight was uneventful and I sailed through immigration and customs. I located the Zuidtangent bus stop easily and the bus came even before I had a chance to take a photo. I got off on a quiet street just outside Schalkwijk Centrum and walked to the home of my friends P and K. It was still early in the morning and they were slightly unprepared due to the unexpected early arrival of the flight and the lack of delays entering the Netherlands.

After breakfast and a shower they took me for a tour of Zandvoort. This is the Beverly Hills of the Netherlands, they said, as we drove down Zandvoorterweg towards the beach. Many wealthy Dutch live in this strip of the country, according to them. The wind was stiff, cold and stinging, but the sunshine was welcome. It was not the season yet, so the place was mostly deserted. We had coffee in a cafe. All the time we were catching up with each other's news.


The opening up of the Eastern Europe countries has had a flow-on effect on Western Europe countries. Manufacturing jobs have gone to cheaper countries and factories have closed. The population pyramid has contracted at the bottom and planners are wondering how to pay for the retirement benefits of the current workforce.

Heemstede has a standard set of shops: supermarket, Hema, hardware store, cheese shop, wine shop, etc. Everything was as before, and yet not as before. The local sector can only provide so much employment. Where will the other jobs come from? A mutual friend of ours had changed careers a couple of times. Lifetime employment is a thing of the past.


They had a spare room above K's practice where they installed me. We walked to a nearby snack bar and had a snack of frites met mayo, to indulge my nostalgia.


There was a tree just outside my window in glorious bloom. I seem to remember being told it was an almond tree. I'm so ignorant of botany.