Last Tuesday I had to go Antwerp. According to Google Maps (normally very accurate), my trip would take me approximately 75 minutes. Now I had to be on time; at 9 o’clock sharp, I had to kick off a public Core Spring training that lasts for 4 days.

I left at a quarter to seven (yes, that’s 6.45am), so I had two hours and fifteen minutes, almost twice the time it would take me to get there in normal circumstances. The first 80 kilometers or so were just going very smooth, I was doing about 130 kph on the highway and encountered almost nobody on the highway. Right before the border I figured out I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I stopped at a gas station to get something to eat. I had my breakfast, a little tea and about 20 minutes later I was on my way again.

I was driving towards Antwerp, switching radio stations (from the Dutch 3FM to the Belgian Donna), confident of reaching my destination on time, when all of a sudden traffic came to a grinding halt. And then the trouble began. We simply sat there for more than 15 minutes, without moving an inch. Then we moved, let’s say 500 meters and then again, traffic halted. This continued until I saw the first sign with directions: Antwerp was still 30 kilometers away and I had just maneuvered myself into one of the heaviest traffic jams I have ever encountered. People around me were sitting there like it was their every job, having cigarettes, listening to the radio, drinking bottles of water. In the end, I opened up my window, got somebody’s attention and asked if this was normal. The women in the Toyota Corolla answered positively, this was everyday’s business, and it wouldn’t get better anytime soon.

So, I realized, at about 8.00am, this can’t be really bad, I still have about an hour to reach my destination… I started to get a little worried about 8.30, when I heard the bi-hourly news bulletin, updating me about the latest things that had happened in Belgium. The traffic information notified me of the jam that was ahead of me. It would still last for 10 kilometers…

I though back of the days I first started to work in Amsterdam, while living in Utrecht. As soon as I got a car, I started driving back and forth to Amsterdam. It took me little over an hour to get there everyday, while normally it would only take about 40 minutes. I complained so badly, that my roommates (I was still living in a student home) were getting sick and tired of me in no time… A year later, travel time had increased to 75 minutes, and when I’m driving from my place (I moved to Amsterdam several years ago, but I’m back in Utrecht now, so to the distance nothing has changed really) to Amsterdam right now, during rush hour, it would definitely take me 90 minutes. And there I was, in Belgium, sitting in a jam that wasn’t even caused by an accident and nobody complained!!!! It all became clear to me: we Dutch people are just a bunch of wheenies. We can’t even deal with 30 minutes delay, we just complain, complain and complain…

Back to the Belgian highways… About an hour later later, I finally managed to leave the highway. Now I still had to find my destination, which actually didn’t prove to be really difficult. I finally arrived at a few minutes past ten, more than an hour late! Now, all of this wouldn’t have been so terrible, if not for the fact that 12 people were waiting! Finally, things were quite okay, we managed to compensate the extra hour later that day and everybody was sort of okay with it, at least, except for myself, because I hated it…

One thing I did learn. The Belgians, they do not complain! And that’s something we Dutch people can definitely learn from them

I just arrived back home and am going for a little drink in a minute. Fortunately the pub we are meeting up is only 200 meters from my places, so I can’t get stuck in traffic. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking the train to Schiphol Airport and a plane to Athens, Greece, that should also prove to be a lot easier than the road to Antwerp I was on last Tuesday…