Holiday to the Netherlands, advice please

[DrPeppersPhD]

So every year since 2015 my favourite band holds a special Christmas concert in the Netherlands. I've wanted to go for years, and it's recently occured to me that I could probably go if they have one this year. But since I've never been abroad alone before, and this will be after Brexit, I'm turning to mumsnet wisdom to give me some pointers of stuff I'd need to think about/talk me out of it if it's a really fucking dumb idea.

NL is great - very safe, in general. English is widely spoken. You can get in on the train from St Pancras or by air. Which city is the concert in? Amsterdam is big and busy, but much smaller and easier to get around than London.

The concert was in Tilburg last year, but hasn't been announced this year yet. I'm glad to hear English is pretty widely spoken, I am making an effort to learn Dutch (out of personal interest not just for this!) but it's good to know that if my Dutch completely abandons me I'm not completely stuffed!

I swear the Dutch speak better English than most Brits. You'll be fine.

Do you have a smartphone? I used an app called itranslate quite a bit when I was over there this summer. You can take a photo of a notice/menu etc and it will translate it to English (it was jolly useful when we were trying to decide how/where we could park)!

Sort out some decent travel insurance (to make sure you can get medical treatment if anything untoward happens) and make sure you have at least 6 months' validity remaining on your passport.

Buy some thermals at the end of the ski season/in the sales. Winters can be cold.

Ooh, apps are handy. If you're on public transit, download the 9292 app. It's what all the locals use. And get an anonymous OV chipkart (like Oyster) to pay for your fares.

They often only take Maestro here (not credit cards or Visa Debit) so carry some cash.

If you eat out, check the content of the salt pots before putting salt on your chips. They put salt in the multi-holed pots.

Take a box and collect up all the extra vowels, and bring them back to donate to Wales.

I always found the Dutch great, but very direct compared with Brits.

(used to work for Dutch company)

@TeenTimesTwo
Dare I ask what's in the other pots?

only pepper

They often only take Maestro here (not credit cards or Visa Debit) so carry some cash.

But you can use an ATM with any of those cards.

And you can pay anywhere with your bank card and pin nr.

Uh, they DO take credit cards. Just not in the supermarket...

Depends on the supermarket

Don't forget to eat a kroket and bring stroopwafels back with you.

Yeah, forgot about the supermarket thing. We've been caught out a few times.

Presumably there is a Dutch version of Mumsnet that complains about the Madcat family who buy a lot of chocolate and booze in Lidl and monopolise a checkout whilst Mummy Madcat runs to the car to get some paper euros.

They don’t take visa debit cards in some supermarkets because they think it’s a credit card. I think. If you knew the word for ‘debit’ it might help!

Debit = debet (day- bet)