The Dutch are very literal, practical, down-to-earth, commonsensical. Stereotyping, but what the heck–it’s usually true. I encountered several subtle examples while I was in Amsterdam. Among them:
Everyone’s cell phone’s ring-tone is “ringing phone.” That’s what I have my phone set to in the US, and I may seem like a total square, but I least I know for sure when it’s my phone ringing because I’m the only one in the whole country under 80 who thinks this is what a phone should sound like. In Amsterdam, I was reaching for my phone every 10 minutes, because someone sitting near me in a cafe was inevitably also a total square. Except there, it was normal.
My friend Adriana stopped through on a layover one day. She had flown in on KLM, and she said that in KLM economy class, the little decorative covers on the headrests say “Economy.” Not “Tempo” or some other euphemism. Not nothing at all, which is what airlines that haven’t thought up a euphemism do. “Economy.”
There was a third item, but I’ve forgotten it now. But you get the idea. This attitude can be refreshing when you come to visit Amsterdam for the first time. After long familiarity, though, it can seem a tad bleak and passionless. Especially when it creeps down into food. Which I’ll get to…
In the meantime, a rare example of Dutch whimsy: cheese slices shaped like Easter bunnies.
Earlier:
Amsterdam #1: Photos
I read the first paragraph of the post, and I thought, ooh, the KLM “economy” totally fits into this. I should write about it in the comments. And then there it was!
I had an experience of the literal taken to what I think of as an extreme when I was in Amsterdam back in 1977.
My brother and I ordered a “hamburger” in a bar and that is in fact what we got — a burger made of ham.
It was absolutely disgusting but still has me laughing 33 years later.
Yipes–that does sound disgusting! Someone I know had that happen to them in Mexico. Somehow you’d think the Dutch would be savvier (being so close to Hamburg and all…). But literal thinking strikes down cosmopolitanism!