Yay, we have reached the weekend! Did you know the Keukenhof, the largest garden in Europe, is now open on a limited basis? Keukenhof, cultural sites start welcoming visitors again from nltimes.nl. It is part of the government’s testing expansion (Netherlands to allow small crowds at football matches, theaters this month, also nltimes.nl). You can see the full list of participating institutions and dates at rijksoverheid.nl (in Dutch). The visitor needs to have a negative corona test that is not older than 40 hours. The tests are free but you need to go to certain locations to get tested and you must have the CoronaCheck app.
In other news: Rotterdam, The Hague announce bid to host Tour de France start from nltimes.nl. The bid would either be for 2024 or 2025. Rotterdam would host the opening stage, with an additional stage from Rotterdam to The Hague. The previous time the Netherlands hosted a few stages was back in 2015, when Utrecht was the host twice.
And Fietsers weg uit de Grote Marktstraat? Dat kan, maar gaat ten koste van parkeerplekken from omroepwest.nl. (Removing cyclists from the Grote Marktstraat? That is possible, but it will come at the cost of parking). The city has determined that it is possible to remove cyclists from the shopping area of the Grote Marktstraat, the large shopping street in The Hague’s city centre. This is because cyclists can use the parellel streets of Gedempte Gracht and Gedempte Burgwal, but 54 parking spots would need to be removed in the latter street to make sure cyclists have enough room.
Of course, the article then goes on to say that there is a possibility that cyclists can cycle tvia the Grote Markstraat before 11:30 daily, when the shops open. But that just means people won’t know the difference and will keep cycling through the area no matter the time of day. Although the city did successfully manage to ban scooters from using the Grote Markstraart so I guess anything is possible… we shall see!