Tour De France part 2! Our visit to Avoriaz. September 8, 2010

So as promised better late than never.. PART 2

Avoriaz

A week after the TDF left Rotterdam we started our own journey towards France, but instead of cycling for hours we decided travelling by car would be a better option, although it was 31 degrees even at night, the closer we got towards France the warmer it seemed to get (not really a surprise travelling South and all that)

We set out on the Friday evening, car packed with tent, cooking utensils, sleeping bags and everything we would need for a night up in the French Alps with no public amenities or camp sites  (or so we thought)

Starting out from Holland we drove to Nancy in France, which is a little over and hour drive from Luxembourg. We discovered a VERY cheap self service hotel called B&B great bargain at 35 euros for the night! Just what you need when you are on the road and only need a bed for the night, in our case we were only needing 6 hours sleep or so.

Setting off early the following morning on the second leg of our journey to Avoriaz, the temperatures started souring early reaching 36 degrees by 10am! With no air con we soon acclimatised with intervals of winding windows down on the motorway (who need air con eh?)

Just passing by Geneve’ in Switzerland we stopped near the boarder and the much anticipated and beloved Buffalo Grill, this is a magnificent French chain of roadside restaurants themed on Buffalo Bill.  Great value for money and the service can’t be faulted, they do the tastiest steaks and the best spare ribs I have ever!!! (if only I lived nearer to France!)

OK back on topic…as my stomach grumbles and aches for some Buffalo Grill!!

So finally we arrive in Avoriaz after travelling kilometres of long windy roads to the top of the snow less ski resort which was now basking in 30 degree plus sunshine…….BUT not for long! no sooner had we arrived the black clouds loomed overhead and a hail storm started pelting down on us, I’m not talking your average hail storm here, I’m talking about Styrofoam ball type stuff! It was pelting down with such force we could almost hear the metal roof of the car being dented with every little bullet hitting it.

At this point the temperature had plummeted from 26 degrees to 3 degrees!! all in the space of 5 minutes! Freaky weather! After about 20-30 mins of being fired at, we started to believe that this was a sign we should never have ventured up this mountain! I’ve never been a big fan of ski resorts but I thought I’d be safe from ice and cold in the middle of summer! I was wrong.

Whilst all this was taking place we were sitting in our car stuck on a mud/ice slope… Reason?… read on…

At this point parking spaces were few and far between, we parked up in the nearest spot just to be on the safe side until the storm passed, some “nice friendly” (not) Belgium people with a camper van thought they somehow owned rights to the mountain actually ventured out into the storm to tell us to move our car because we were in “their” spot… yes apparently so. If hail hadn’t been pelting down so hard I would have got out of the car and this blog would be taking a completely different direction right now, a camper van with flat tyres would have been the theme of the next paragraph…perhaps even prison cells might have been mentioned in there too! It was their lucky day I tell you!

Much against my protesting my very obedient boyfriend kindly moved our offending car with much urgency in the middle of the storm down a dirt track/mini mountain edge to keep King and Queen camper van happy…therefore even if we wanted to go anywhere, we couldn’t! We were well and truly stranded. Talk about that saying  “If someone told you to jump off a mountain…” I’ll say no more!

Soon we encountered our first Dutch man (they’re everywhere, try going anywhere you’ll soon find a Dutchman) who came to offer help/advice and his advice was that we pitch our tent up there next to him as we weren’t going anywhere until the storm had passed and the mud was dry. He was a jolly friendly old chappy from Breda who had arrived the previous night and was making a mini holiday out of his venture up the mountain.

The aftermath:

The aftermath of the hailstorm

So we pitched our tent up at the side of the mountain next to our newly found Dutch companion.

Tent

Soon after we discovered that the hailstones were a blessing in disguise as all the water, wine and beer we had in the car had been basking in 30 degree heat all day so we collected all the hailstones around the tent into a container in proper Bear Grylls survival style!

Ice Ice Baby

Soon the temperature went back up into the 20’s with slight drizzle now and then. We ventured up the mountain road past the hundreds if not thousands of camper vans and caravans lined up the road leading towards the finish line.

(UPDATE! we notice at this point the parking space which King and Queen campervan didn’t want us to use next to their precious van was taken by some Italians who probably didn’t understand Dutch/Flemish, and you know what the average Italian is like they don’t take shit lightly)

Our view walking up the last few kilometers up to the resort Avoriaz

During the summer months the ski resort is mainly populated by mountain bikers and hardcore racing cyclists who love the challenge of the steep mountain roads.

Having never been to a ski resort before (I’m not a fan of the cold and the whole snooty ski fashion wear) it was quite interesting to see it without snow I found myself trying to imagine what it would look like during the winter? way more picturesque in my opinion.

A snowy Avoriaz

Although there were many people visiting for the Tour De France most of the resort hotels and accomodation were eerily quiet and it felt as though the dark wooden buildings were depressed without their much loved and trusted snowy companion.

This is how it looked when we were visiting, note the one building decked out in Tour De France red polka dot material.

Summer Avoriaz

So after dining, visiting a few bars and exploring the village we ventured back a few kilometres down the mountain back to our tent ready for a good nights sleep… After I had grown used to the English and German drunk escapades till the early hours I must say I didn’t sleep too bad :O)

Overnight the tour vans had ventured up the mountains and all the HGV’s carrying all the broadcast equipment had arrived, those poor people in camper vans must have had a terrible nights sleep with lorries, trucks going past and technical people building up around their vans.

The view from our camping spot in the morning was glorious! We had also gained lots more tent campers overnight and the party atmosphere and excitement was brewing in the air.

View from our camping spot

Now there were some pretty amazing sights to be seen in the morning, one of which was this guy in his underpants doing his morning exercises. Let me just say, be glad the picture was taken from behind, as the front view was well….lets just say…. a heavy sack of swinging spuds in an old bag sprung to mind…if you get my drift? too graphic? sorry! Plus the poor guy seemed to be a different colour from the front, bless him, he was fake tan orange…I think he forgot to apply the fake tan to the other side of his body haha.

Another glorious mountain view

Lots of day trippers were starting to arrive in coaches, many companies were offering day trips to the resort for the  Tour de France, many of these people were gathering at the finish line hours before to get a good view of the cyclists coming in. I bet there were a few piles going round after these people had sat in the same spot for hours on end.

The finish line 5 hours before the tour arrived

It was amazing to see how quickly the crew built everything up from the crowd barriers and broadcast units to laying the advertisements at the finish line. It really makes you realise how hard the organisers and crew have to work in order to set everything up within a short space of time, then take everything down and move on to the next finish line for the following stage. I take my hat off to those guys as it must be seriously hard work.

Crew laying down the the Skoda banners note broadcast units to the right

Massive HGV’s were carrying all the broadcast equipment and unbelievably giant screens were broadcasting the whole stage for the crowds to watch.

Giant Screens

All in all the whole event was really well organised for a mountain stage, usually during mountain stages there are no toilets or amenities, once you are there you are out in the wilderness with lots of other people there for the same reason, but the local council/government won’t be making sure there are toilets for you to use or police ensuring your safety. You are pretty much on your own out there roughing it and your nearest toilet is the most secluded bush you manage to find. So we were really spoilt in that respect, we even had a little supermarket open in the resort area. Good for them! all those people in a ski resort in the middle of summer doesn’t happen very often so they might as well make as much money out of it as they can and attract as many visitors over that short weekend.

The landscape was truly amazing, photos just don’t do it justice.

Beautiful views

Spectators were all in their places, the mountain road was closed off to any further visitors and unregistered vehicles, a few hours before the cyclists were due to arrive and the commercial wagons were commencing their tour pretty much the same as when the tour took off from Rotterdam. The excitement was building and we took our spots outside the residence of King and Queen camper van (not intentionally, but that’s just where we ended up coincidently, no conversation was exchanged and I behaved myself ;O) haha

Crowds waiting

I can’t even imagine what type of pain these guys go through to get up the mountains, seeing the cyclists close up you can almost feel their pain as they struggle after cycling miles I wonder how they feel when finally the finish line is in sight!

Group one venturing towards the finish line

So after all the excitment we made some  soup on our camping cooker and Sjoerd in proper Dutch style was all kitted out ready for the World Cup final in which Holland were playing against Spain!! So everything had to be orange including the food!

The Orange Dutch man

At this point people were already leaving, TDF cyclists were cycling back down the mountain to their tour buses and the tech people were breaking everything down, no sooner had we had soup and walked back up towards the finish line the whole place was almost desolate again!?!? It was a very strange thing to experience, in some respects it was almost like a dream, as if the TDF had never taken place, only a few HGV’s still parked up without drivers and a giant screen in am empty car park with perhaps eight people and ourselves waiting in anticipation for the world cup to start. Ermm but we waited a long time as the French Sports Broadcaster couldn’t pick up a signal for the world cup.

No connection

So we waited patiently for the techies to sort out the problem but figured it would be better to venture into the resort village and see if there was a pub showing the world cup and yes there was! and that is where most of the people especially the Dutchies had ran off to. The pubs were so packed out we watched from outside the window, we quickly got bored by half time and were weighing up our options of what would be the best and safest course of action for the return journey back through France.

Darkness was looming and our car was still stuck in the same place at the edge of the steep drop, we thought it would be best if we were going to have problems driving out of the mountains that we have problems while there was still a bit of daylight rather than having to be tugged out of the mud in pitch darkness. So we walked back to the car and drove out no problem..very lucky!!

So off we drove back down the windy roads with all the giant techie lorries infront and behind us, this was great fun as everyone was beeping joyously at each other (in France if you see a TDF vehicle you have to sound your horn) so there was a great party spirit on our decent. With the world cup commentary on French radio, in French naturally, we were continuously listening very carefully for any indication that Holland might have scored, all we understood was the commentator saying Zero Zero every 30 seconds just to keep non Frenchies like ourselves in the loop I reckon ;O) We came across random Dutchies at the side of the road (as you do in France) and asked them for an update, no luck…Holland were not scoring. It is also no surprise to announce that Holland did in fact NOT win the world cup.

And on that bombshell we trekked back up through France back home to Holland.

Hope you enjoyed the read :O)

The Tour De France on our doorstep (well almost!) July 28, 2010

This year as you may already know the Tour De France set off from the city of Rotterdam, so living not too far away from Rotterdam (about 20 mins by train) so we set off to Rotterdam to catch a glimpse of the teams setting off.

We visited the Grand Depart on the Sunday but in total it was a four day affair starting Thursday 1st July 2010, the first day was packed with various TDF events including amateur tours of 40, 70 and 120 km’s.

Friday’s events included hand bikers and wheelchair events, plus various teams such as the police and other Dutch team races.

Saturday saw the prologue race, this race determined who would be departing from Rotterdam with the yellow jersey so the competition was already hot even before the official start. This was the ideal opportunity for spectators to catch a glimpse of their favourite team or rider, with Rabobank probably being the most popular team for most visitors with it being the national team for the Netherlands. The publicity caravans also got a test run around Rotterdam pumping the crowds up with some freebies and promotions, the Dutch love a freebie or two, so this parade of bottled water, sports drinks, jelly sweets, and Skoda cars (no they were not throwing Skodas into the crowd!) to name just a few was an exciting energy builder for sure.

Sunday saw the highly anticipated event: the official start of the Tour De France 2010, Le Grand Depart.

The point all cyclists departed from

We arrived at 10am to watch the commercial caravans start out on their long tour all the way to France. We decided to explore and remain in the Westerkade area of Rotterdam as this is where all the teams would depart from on the way to the official start at Erasmus Bridge a few km away.

Commercial caravans were the first off!

Crowds were starting to build early as the tour buses arrived carrying the cyclists. Official team cars carrying the bikes on the roof were arriving in droves, all parked neatly side by side against the crowd barriers, this made it very easy to chat and watch what the technical crews were up to, you could feel the tension building as they were making last minute adjustments to some of the trusty bikes the cyclists would be counting on to get them through the flats of Holland through Belgium then up and away into those mountains.

Quick step mechanic prepping Wijnants bike

Some cyclists were venturing out of their tour buses to greet and sign autographs for fans waiting and watching the events unravel. The team Radioshack tour bus arrived as the crowds started to swarm into the surrounding area, of course one of the most if not THE most famous cyclist in the world Lance Armstrong was sitting on that very bus.

Lance Armstrong's Team Radioshack tour bus

A crew member tried to make his way with a big box of free goodies to give out patiently waiting fans at the barriers but already swarms of people with “special” passes to be in the official area (people who were competition winners or company sponsorship employees) were starting to literally fight over the freebies being handed out. Shouting and tugs of war were braking out over cheaply made free T-shirts with the Radio Shack logo printed on! I have never witnessed such a sight in my life, I hope these grown adults are ashamed of themselves when they look back on their behaviour. Luckily the squabbles died down and the bad vibes were consumed by the building excitable atmosphere.

Ready for the off!

The cyclists numbers were firmly in place on each bike and the teams had arrived, the mayor of Rotterdam was ready with his speech and the Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was greeting officials and famous Tour De France cyclists Joop Zoetermelk and Bernard Hinault were amongst this group of people cheering the cyclists off on their way.

Mayor Aboutaleb, Prime Minister Balkenende and Tourdirector Prudhomme

Joop Zoetermelk winner of Tour De France 1980 and Bernard Hinault winner of 1978, 1979,1981,1982 and 1985

Everything in Rotterdam was yellow, which was quite a strange phenomenon as we were in the midst of the World Cup where everything that you can feast your eyes on has to be orange the Dutch national colour which everyone here is so enthusiastic about during these big national events.

Everything is yellow in Rotterdam

But today for the Rotterdammers it was all about those tough guys on bikes cycling through the wind, rain, sun, thunder and lightening and any other other type of weather they would be blessed or cursed with, enduring so many different types of terrain ranging from below sea level to altitudes you can just about catch your breath in! These guys when they are unlucky enough to have an accident they jump right back on! in some cases in agony.. some carry on with broken bones, grazed elbows and layers of skin ripped off after a close encounter with the road at high speed. But they all have two things in mind their team and WINNING! The comradeship, team spirit and good sportsmanship most of the cyclists display put many other professional team sportsmen to shame. Even their relationships with their competitors is something to be admired.

The crowds quickly built up and the streets were buzzing with excitement as the speeches were under way and the cyclists were mounting their bikes ready for their short trip to the Erasmus bridge a few kilometres away. Spectators were moving closer to the barriers in hope of catching a glimpse of the cyclists speeding off from the start line.

And the cyclists were off!

Within a few minutes the cyclists we already well on their way to the Erasmus bridge and spectators could watch their progress through Rotterdam city centre on big screens displayed throughout the city. Our view of the Rhine and water hose display (via small ships) was fantastic. It is not very often that I take the time to admire the beauty of Rotterdam, having worked in Rotterdam for many years with a view of the Rhine and experiencing the water hose/fountains every time a big cruise liner arrives in the port or a special event takes place, you start to take the scenery in all its glory for granted somewhat.

The amazingly beautiful Erasmus Bridge

This special day brought it home to me just how magnificent the city is and how amazing it looked on the big screen, if I was sitting at home somewhere in another country watching the Tour De France on TV I’d be saying “Wow! I want to go there!!” Rotterdam you really brushed up well and were looking amazingly handsome that day!

Rotterdam south side skyline

That brings my Rotterdam Tour De France experience to a close, check back soon to read all about our Tour De France trip to Avoriaz to catch the cyclists at a mountain stage.

Did you also pay a visit to the Tour De France? If so I’d love to hear about it!

Rimmel 60 seconds Nail Polish! GREAT! June 27, 2010

I have tried sooo many different types of nail varnish and in the past few years and  I have resulted to professional products and expensive top range products due to the fact that most regular/drug store brands don’t step up to the mark when it comes to being easy to apply, quick to dry and representing the actual colour you see through the glass bottle! (Yes amazingly some once applied look a totally different colour to what you think you are getting, a bit like hair colour I suppose)

Recently I was looking for something in a great shocking PINK and Rimmel colours caught my eye!

Rimmel 60 seconds 619 Pulsating to be exact!

Great at about 3 quid UK price

I have tried Rimmel before and found them clumpy after using a few times or the varnish just didn’t apply nicely and didn’t seem fluid enough to create a nice even application all the way to the tip in one brush stroke.

I think only recently solid, bright, shocking colours have been in fashion, not long ago shocking pink would have been way too tarty for everyday wear but with the 80’s theme being well in at the moment nobody wants a sparkly fairy pink light drab/un-noticeable colour on their nails do they? They want their nails to be noticed!!

This colour (the pic doesn’t do it justice and nor does the Rimmel Website which seems to display a totally different colour?!?) I would describe as fluorescent which is exactly what I was looking for.

Now onto the most important thing the brush! It claims to aid easy application and it does just that! it even rivals my favourite Opi brand which have great brushes but also cost 15 euro so you expect a bit more. It also claims that you can apply in one coat in 1 second, this is almost true, I would say approx 3-5 seconds and this also would depend on your talent with a brush and how ambidextrous you are.

It claims that it dries in 60 seconds…almost true 60 seconds is probably a best case scenario with a slight exaggeration. To the touch it is dry but if you were to actually use your hands normally you’ll get some nice dents and clumps lovely! But that is the case with most nail products even the professional ones if you are not careful for 5 minutes after application.

I am definitely going to shop for some more colours in this Rimmel line. I have applied the colour today and will write an update on how long it lasted before chipping. I must admit though I have applied a professional top coat by Creative so it will probably last much longer than without any top coat.

So tell me all about your lovely yummy colours and nail brands!

OK! time for some more love! L’Oreal professional stuff! June 10, 2010

Ok you won’t believe me but I am not a natural blonde! yes wow shocking I know!

So now you have taken a few moments to get over that shocking revelation I shall proceed….

Like many people I spend quite a bit of time and money at the hairdressers trying to achieve the perfect colour. (sometimes successfully and sometimes not but that’s another story)

Peroxide has been used on my hair to strip it of its natural colour (dark brown/ grey now though!) and therefore removing the pigment which can damage the hair and result in extreme drying out and frizzyness.  So I have to take extra care by trying to use professional products to maintain the moisture balance and condition of my hair.

Over the years I have used many different types of products available in the regular drug stores, but unfortunately nothing ever matches the results I see when I use professional salon products. Well they are way more expensive than regular shop products! So I would hope/expect better results right?

After years of using Fudge haircare products, my hair stylist recently introduced me to a range of L’Oreal professional hair products.

Ok, my hair is not extremely “visibly” damaged, but with all the peroxide treatments it is important that I take care of my hair.

After trying out the products one in particular stood out, L’Oreal Absolut repair Neofibrine from the expert series, this is a type of washout hair mask.

L'Oreal Professional Expert series Absolut repair Neofibrine TM.

After shampooing I applied the mask and let it work in for five minutes or so then washed it out.  I was expecting greasy results as when rinsing out I found my hair felt weighed down and oily, so I made sure to really wash it out well!

After towel drying my hair it still felt silky and kind of oily but with no residue. Still sceptical I dried my hair and that’s when I was presented with finished result!  Really soft, silky, glossy hair!

OK, so now I’m sounding a bit like a promo right? but seriously I don’t know how better to describe the results.  My hair felt just like it does when I have had it professionally treated at the hair salon.

As far as I’m aware (in the Netherlands anyway) this product is only available in professional hair salons, so if you’d like to try it out, contact a hair salon that stocks L’Oreal professional hair products.  If you need any help with this just drop me a line and I’ll be happy to give you some information.

Have you tried any good haircare products lately?

I’d love to know!!

To offend or not to offend..make of it what you will..A little bit on our society.. June 1, 2010

Ok so now I am going to hit upon a difficult subject, it is quite tricky to even know what to call this blog entry or categorise it as it seems that it is a touchy subject with many people.

I will probably not even manage to get through this blog either without offending some people, so apologies in advance you’ve been warned ;O)… But I tend to voice my opinions on subjects people usually don’t mention because perhaps it is not the done thing? Is that good… really?

Sometimes I think the world has gone mad with what people are allowed to say and not allowed to say, everyone has a different view or opinion, what offends one person may not another.

Anyone that knows me knows that in my day to day life here in Holland I will sometimes voice my opinions about things within Dutch society commenting on “Dutch people” I sometimes comment on”English/Brits” especially the typical tourist that you see here in the summer wearing summer clothes in a 10 degrees rainstorm, or the English type that likes to walk round half naked and get completely trashed and help us Brits live up to our reputation of being uncontrollable alcoholics haha

However, for some reason if I was to mention an Indian or Moroccan or any other nationality that is not “white Western/European” then there is often silence or offence and sometimes accused racism. I think this is society gone mad to be honest.

A hot subject at the moment is Muslims in our society. We have all heard about the recent immigration issues that are not only affecting the Netherlands but also many other countries. I’m not going to comment directly on these issues as they go beyond a simple blog entry, but what I do want to do is mention my recent experiences and put a few things straight relating to my recent comments on Twitter etc.

I had an experience recently where a Moroccan man was threatening towards us, he become aggressive and caused criminal damage to our car. I referred to this man as been an anti social Moroccan. Now had this man been Dutch, English, American whatever I would have most likely referred to them as an anti social Dutchman or anti social Englishman (believe me there are many anti social people out there regardless of where they come from or their ethnic origin)

In another anti social incident that took place this week involving a group of Moroccan girls I made a similar comment. Perhaps it is just best to ignore the details and not mention the nationality or ethnic identity of anybody, at the end of the day in my eyes it makes no difference who was committing the annoying act, it just so happens that in these situations they were Moroccan…fact…descriptive word used.

As a foreigner myself here in Holland I’m referred to as the English girl all the time… (most likely F*!#ing English woman) should I be offended? I find that in Holland in general people are categorized by their nationality, skin colour etc more than they are back home. For some reasons I don’t quite understand (and I am not even going to attempt at exploring that subject) integration hasn’t ventured quite down the same pathway as it has in some parts of the UK (again there are exceptions).

I grew up in Birmingham UK one of the most multicultural cities in the UK so diversity is not a new thing to me. Growing up I had Brummies (English people coming from Birmingham) Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian (this is naming just a few) friends at school. I also had a Muslim boyfriend at one point, my family’s close circle include Serbians and Indians. So this has always be a normal way of life for me, nothing unusual with having a diverse group of family and friends when you are a girl from Birmingham.

So now we jump to Holland, a Monday workday afternoon, governmental city centre of Den Haag, to be blunt and without pussy footing around the subject, observation: very few Dutch/Europeans. Let me make myself VERY clear, I DO NOT have a problem with this, BUT I do have a problem with (ANY) people who think that being in a gang or big group of people gives them the right to ownership of the whole street, plus engaging in other types of anti social disrespectful behaviour which I am not going to go into detail about. Everybody here regardless of ethnicity has the ability to be anti social and believe me I’ve experienced it, but when you are a minority in a certain situation this can feel quite threatening. Is this perhaps a sign of rebellion?

I feel that some people may have resentment and sometimes hate towards Europeans. I am not going to go into the details and discuss this in-depth as I am not knowledgeable enough in Dutch history or politics to really make an intelligent analysis of the reasoning behind some social behaviours, but what I will say is I can’t see it improving with the current political discussions and the proposed mindless solutions that some politicians are coming up with.

I am afraid that even bringing these factual observations up I will be branded as racist, but in my opinion we are in a serious dilemma here in the Netherlands, it is apparent we have a serious situation that may be on the verge of becoming out of hand. Is this due to years of turning a blind eye? The resistance towards integration (in some cases) from BOTH sides, I know first hand how hard it is to integrate here! I do have a bit of a feel of what it is like to be an immigrant and I know the difficulties to a small extent. Integration is not a one sided affair that consists of “integration courses” for immigrants, it takes more than that!

I’m not going to even try to put the country to rights or attempt to find workable solutions. I also want to make it very clear that not every person/situation is the same and I am not judging society or any group of people as a whole.

I’d love to hear your comments or thoughts on this subject…..

Check out my latest addition May 27, 2010

Take a look in the top right hand corner of this screen…

Here you will see a new tab “product reviews”

Please read enjoy and feel free to voice your opinion.

Welcome! May 26, 2010

Welcome! here you will find info opinions and interesting facts that will appeal to everyone.

Here we will cover anything from the best products and reviews, what’s hot and what’s not, consumer affairs, stuff for girls, guys, pets,  and all your favourite things!

Welcome to the circus!

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Albert Heijn or Jumbo?

When choosing the best supermarket what do you look for?

Is it the appearance? the shop floor lay out? customer service?  luxury feel? budget deals? food quality? or the product prices that attract you?

Two of the supermarkets in the Netherlands Albert Heijn (AH) and Jumbo attract a variety of shoppers depending on location.  ( I chose to focus on these two as they are my most local competitors that I visit regularly)

Albert Heijn (AH) for example seems to have dominated all food retailers in the city centre of Den Haag (The Hague) with five stores all within walking distance from each other, with another XL Superstore just outside the city centre area. Their customers are mainly commuters working in the Hague who visit to buy lunchtime supplies or ingredients for dinner as a quick stop on the way home from work.

AH has certainly dominated the market in this location as there are no other “convenience stores” located in the city centre that I’m aware of to date.

Jumbo however has concentrated on locating themselves more in the residential areas of town with large stores within convenient reach to most customers.

In general Jumbo does have larger (but fewer) stores than AH and most of their products appear cheaper. This then leads to the question of quality?

Jumbo stores and products do give you the impression that you are in a budget supermarket, as for the food packaging it  doesn’t look as glitzy and attractive as AH packaging and you can see that less thought has gone into product packaging and design.  Is it all about appearance though?

In my opinion there is very little difference in food quality, AH are very good at marketing and use some psychological tricks in order to appear like the best supermarket in The Netherlands. AH obviously spend alot of time and effort deciding how to market their products with advertising and special offers such as bonus savings and special deals.

Whereas Jumbo may be the cheaper supermarket they fail drastically with their marketing of their products, offering little along the lines of special deals. Not everyone wants to buy 3 get a 4th item for free, their offers can sometimes be unclear and confusing, occasionally offers are displayed before the offer release date which can be misleading.

AH have recently caught onto the buy one get one free system which offers great savings without running up a hefty shopping bill with multi save offers .

They have a bonus card system which allows you to enjoy savings on certain promotional items. I am sure taking advantage of these bonus and multi save offers along with purchase of their own brand products makes Albert Heijn a cheaper shopping choice than Jumbo.

Then comes the question of shop floor layout and most importantly customer service.

Dutch supermarkets in general don’t opt for the traditional isle layout, (GPS  navigation is sometimes advised).  This could be due to space constraints in many stores which leads them to put nooks and crannies in the oddest places resulting in customers wandering around aimlessly like headless chickens. This system however ensures customers navigate the whole store… perhaps intentionally (or are they that smart?) Personally, I find AH’s layout more user friendly in general.

As for customer service, speaking from personal experience I find Albert Heijn staff much more customer orientated and attentive. Disputes are handled in a timely friendly manner. Without going into too much detail or turning the feature into a public flogging on numerous occasions disputes or enquires have not always been handled in the best way by Jumbo staff.

To add Jumbo has a policy which states if you are the 4th person waiting in line and all tills are open then you can claim your shopping for free. This system does not work, for one, catching a member of staff and claiming your 4th spot right at that moment when you are the 4th person in line is impossible.

What signal are you supposed to give? Jump up and down and scream? Then when the queue goes down and you are then the 3rd person in line does the next 4th person in line also get their shopping for free???

You see, without me going into too much detail how this system/idea just does not work? Please don’t turn queue waiting into a pointless stressful game Mr Jumbo! It’s bad enough waiting in a long queue without having the stress of trying to claim you are entitled to free shopping!

Jumbo would attract more customers by perhaps offering discount vouchers or small/sample products to customers faced with long queues. Take a leaf out of Ikea’s book. (they give away free ice cream vouchers to those waiting in a long queue)

So on picking the best supermarket for your needs..this all depends on what you value most? Cheaper food, good customer service, convenience, location etc etc take your pick.

As you have probably guessed my personal preference is AH, however this is not saying that Jumbo is all bad it is just different, different offers that run for longer durations and of course some great deals. I still continue shopping at both stores, is it good to remain open minded and keep your eye out for special offers.