Week 2 in the Netherlands! Sittard-Gelen

Hello!

We're ready to begin our 3rd week and we moved to our new families in in Helmond (we're slowly moving further north and more flat) so I thought I'd share some of our week in Sittard-Gelen.

Monday started the week with a visit to the local water board. They are very similar with some significant differences. First, their Kirby is appointed by the Queen and their board is elected. They work closely with their "nature conservancy" groups to buy land and they only buy the river banks and space for recreation. They don't have a large recreation budget, but they find money somehow because they have very connected trails on the perifery of the nature conservancy and water board land paved for multiuse including handicapped access. Their issues are different in the southern province we visited because they are well above sea level as apposed to the western provinces which are 30 meters below sea level (Neder means down in Dutch-it all makes sense now...). Their flooding comes then from water coming down from the hills flooding the valleys so their flood protection consists of dams on the Maas and Rodebeek and another creek to slow water down before it gets to the valleys. They do not pay for flooding problems and also do not provide flood insurance. The national government will pay for determined natural disasters and the public can sue if they think flooding was due to the government.

Attached are some photos from their public recreation with innovative access with cattle grazing. One is a gate that has the hinges at an angle so the people can push the gate open, but it always swings closed because it is at an angle and the cows can not push out. Also, they have similar grooved ground that we have that the cattle don't want to walk over, except theirs are actual holes in the ground with bars across it so the cattle definately won't cross because their hooves would go down in a hole and they have a path across for bikes/disabled access.

We also visited a center that is a restored brick making building where they are also coordinating the purchase or exchange of land for a greenway cooridor for hiking and biking and wildlife cooridors (they have a very important endangered hamster) and also a tourist cooridor. They have 45 million E over the next 25 years to create these. They feel these are important to create green spaces and tourist spaces to keep people in their shrinking cities (all the kids want to move to Amsterdam). We thought this was a very important lesson for Florida to learn-leave cooridors (or more!) now so we don't have to go back and create these highly important areas. All the cities within the province are working together to do this.

Wednesday we visited the Ancient City of Maastrict (side of the Maas river translated). They are restoring old catholic churches (no one has used these 2 for 100 years and the catholic church can not maintain them). We visited 2-one restored and transformed into a bookstore and one restored and transformed into a hotel. Thursday we visited the city of gelen where they are restoring the downtown area to keep people living here by providing new housing and shops. They say part of the key is to build parking underground and to not have malls that disperse people from the city center (Jacksonville.......). Friday we visited the city of Sittard and hiked all around the city (they are also redeveloping to keep people here so we are learning a lot about planning issues, working together with other cities, and how the city makes the plan first and then the developers can come in and work on what the city planned-good idea huh!) and hiked the farm fields. Yes, I said farm fields! That is one of the most astonishing things we have learned that the public can hike in the farm fields. The crop fields are not fenced and people can walk out of their front door and access miles of farm roads. You see them running, walking their dogs, biking, hiking. They do not sue and everyone is happy. What a cool concept! And England does this too.

Thursday we also visited the most innovative new hospital in the world (attached photo). Everything is build around the fact that their cities are shrinking and they have only old people left and few people to take care of them. They call these old people the white wave (I'll just stop there...!). They have the hospital organized as a hotel so it is not dreary and there is a couch that transforms into a bed in each room so the patient can always have a comfortable visitor. The rooms are completely automated so the nurse can do nurse things. Automation includes a computer that can be pulled over to the bed with internet access, patient/hospital information, a button to dim the lights, a button to lower the blinds, a button to close the door. The food is in the hallway so if you are able to you can feed yourself. The hospital simple work is run by robots! These are flat, oval like machines on rollers and they roll up to a cart of food or towels, raise them selves to attach to a cart, travel to and go up or down in the elevator, don't bump into people, and drop their stuff off where needed and return. They said this was a must because there are not enough people to work. Their doctors offices are located there and all patient records are automated and the nurse/doctor/patient system is organized to a t. It was amazing!

So, we're in Helmond and start a busy week of learning. I am staying with the City manager of Helmond and we visit his office on Wednesday. We rode Solex bikes Saturday for three hours (with a break for beer!). These bikes go about 20 miles per hour and are bicycles with a motor on the front wheel. I can't tell if we were more amazed at the fun we had or the AMAZING trail system that enabled us to go up to 20 miles per hour throughout many towns, the city, the country and the farm fields. Did i mention they have an amazing trail system here? Thanks!

On a side note, I figured out the translation of what Robert said I needed to know-nog pilsner. This means further or more beer! You can only buy one type of beer in each pub so you only need to say pilsner and they bring the only type of beer. Plsn is a city in the Chech republic I think and beer is brewed there. That is where the word Pilsn in Dutch comes from and the english word pilsner. Cool!

Tot ziens!
Terri