High Winds In Amsterdam

High Winds In Amsterdam

To say it has been a bit windy lately would be an understatement. Yesterday Holland suddenly descended into complete chaos as a large storm swept across the country coursing more damage then a visit from Godzilla.

The streets turned into high powered wind tunnels populated by pedestrians struggling to keep on their feet. Anyone carrying an umbrella ran the risk of being blown into a near by canal or Belgium.

All trains came to a complete stand still by order of the traffic police due to leaves on the line. Normally this would not be too much of a problem but the trees were still attached at the time.

Roads turned into rivers, people in high rise buildings were getting sea sick, traffic took over an hour to go just one hundred meters and everyone was advised to stay indoors and off the roads.

My journey home that normally takes 20 minutes took four and half hours. I spent the evening listening to the high winds raging outside as parts of the house rattled and shook. I would not have been too surprised to wake up in the morning and discover that the house had landed in Oz after being swept up in the storm and crash landing, killing The Wicked Witch of the East in the process.

On the upside, all the wind turbines in Holland must have generated enough power to supply the rest of the world into the 25th century.

Stuart

Stuart is an accident prone Englishman who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Even his move to the country was an unintentional accident, the result of replying to a cryptic job advertisement he found one day in a local British magazine. Since then he has learned to love the Dutch (so much so that he married one of them) and now calls the country home. He started the blog Invading Holland in 2006 as a place to share his strange stories of language misunderstandings, cultural confusions and his own accident prone nature.

41 Responses

  1. vallyP says:

    Hi Stu, yes we were on board in the harbour. I wsa out for some of the day as I was working, but when I went home, it was pretty wild…even getting on board was a nerve wracking exercise in making sure I stayed on the dreaded gangplank…lol…the idea of walking the plank suddenly became very real ;-)

  2. marycub says:

    I did infact get blown over earlier in the week, for i am but a small person. I have had to break into a jog a few times to avoid falling again.

  3. Jodie says:

    I guess this just teaches me why it might be a good idea to watch the weather report every now and again. I had no idea about the storm and decided that thursday would be the perfect day to drive to Amsterdam and back in the morning to sort out some business at the consulate.
    The drive there wasn’t too bad but the return journey left me quite shaken after almost being blown over the guardrail on the highway a couple of times!

    … and I swear I saw a cow blow past at one point! :D

  4. Renate says:

    Hi Stu,

    wow, cool blog you’ve got here.. read some old posts as well, really love m. I think I’ll keep an eye on your blog! :)

    Cheers!

    Renate

  5. Invader_Stu says:

    Zoe – Why do you need two? Beaming signals into space?

    VallyP – It must have felt like being at high sea

    Marycub – Best not go around with an umbrella then unless you want to end up doing a Marry Poppins impression.

    Jodie – I had no idea the storm was coming either. Once it arrived it was hard not to notice though.

    You might have seen the same cow that landed on my roof.

    Renate – Thanks. I’m glad you like it :)

  6. Jodie says:

    Stu – well at least you wont be worrying about running out of mince ;)

  7. Bihi says:

    It sounds like the story of the Mad Hurricane that Blew the Bunker Off. Sad, I must tell.

    Hopefully expecting the next weather incident from Greenland,

  8. zoe says:

    one dish is for france and the other england. i know, don’t ask.

  9. tenakalaz says:

    how did you know that Stu likes a good mince :)

  10. Invader_Stu says:

    You’ve never complained about my mincing Tenakalaz

  11. Miss Evvil says:

    Hi Stu!

    Me and my better half was very lucky indeed. We flew off to Norway the day before the storm hit Holland and yes, you guessed it, the big european winter-storm came as snow there so ended up spending 4 days in winter wonder-land. Lucky us! But I do feel for you, being stuck in the country of wind-mills and flying cows during the worst storm since 1913… All the best!

  12. ellen says:

    Someone sent me a powerpoint of the ice storms in Switzerland – I’ve never seen anything so dramatic.

  13. marycub says:

    I didn’t have an umbrella!! Wind and rain do not equal umbrella in my way of thinking.

  14. Jodie says:

    I’ve never understood the mysterious umbrella. I have owned one or two in my lifetime but they are objects that completely stupify me. I always open it facing the wrong way and invariably either get my eyes almost taken out or start lifting off the ground.
    I can’t hold onto an umbrella and ride my bicycle (a must when living in clog-land).
    The frigging things constantly flap and steer a course for the nearest source of water (which is kind of defeating the point, isn’t it?) and they drip all over everything when I finally reach my destination.
    I’d rather just get soaked and towel myself off in said destinations hallway and then enjoy the added bonus of sympathy and attention and cups of coffee with digestive biccies which I get as a result of looking like a drowned cat ;)

  15. Invader_Stu says:

    Miss Evvil – It’s lucky you were not flying on the day of the storm. That would have been scary.

    Zoe – Are you planning an invasion?

    Ellen – I never thought I would hear the words ‘power point’ and ‘dramatic’ in the same sentence :p

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