Dronten

 Dronten

Dronten is a small town north of Amsterdam, located in the province of Flevoland. It has a population of about 40,440 people. The main three attractions that make Dronten a special city are: the university CAH Dronten, the amusement park Walibi Holland and the city center De Meerpaal. The first one is the university I used to go to. It is located a little bit outside the city center and perfectly reachable with a bike. In fact, every place in the Netherlands is reachable with a bike; which is why I like the Netherlands - but more on that later. Secondly, the Walibi Holland is a great park to spend a fun day for the whole family. I have not been there yet but it is supposed to be one of the biggest and best amusement parks of the Netherlands. 

A few bike ride minutes away from the park is the city center of Dronten called De Meerpaal. I absolutely adore this little center because it provides everything people want and even has these little shops which sell such cute dishes, pictures and crafts nobody needs, but to which I am addicted to. Flowers, wooden shoes, happy Dutch people and blue windmills are the most popular motives for food, decoration or laundry sold in these little shops - I just love these motives. Thanks to my bike at that time, I could only buy stuff to a certain extend; if I had a car I probably would have emptied these little shops. Bigger shops can also be found in this center such as Hema, Albert Heijn or C&A. The latter is also known in Austria; the others are a drugstore and a grocery store respectively. Additionally to that, a library, a post office, a phone store and a cinema are located in that center. When I biked home from the center I often made

a detour to enjoy the nice routes around the residential area. Despite this nice routes, biking rarely was a pleasurable experience due to harsh weather conditions, particularly in the winter months. Nevertheless, bikes and the Netherlands are inseparable.

Besides bikes, agriculture also characterizes the Netherlands. Enormously large crop fields with strictly positioned windmills surround Dronten.  I felt so free when biking next to these fields, it was as if I was driving endlessly - no mountains and a monotone outlook for hours. Most of the people living in Dronten are farmers. As a result, the farmers market every Wednesday offers a variety of hand-made and home-made Dutch specialities. The food and the smell of these were mouth-watering, though admittedly I took more pleasure in looking at the crafts offered.

Above all, there is a gym, a dance center and a little church. My friends and I regularly went to the gym to work out and take classes. The classes were not only a challenge because of the hard training but also due to the fact that I could not speak Dutch. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the experience of going to a Dutch gym.

As I talked to the major of Dronten once, I was told that there have not been many Austrians to Dronten yet. In fact, I was the only one registered living there at that time. Maybe this little post about Dronten motivates some Austrians to visit and explore Dronten. It is absolutely worth the trip.


The second house from the left was the one I lived with five other students. The houses build in the northern provinces of the Netherlands look almost like little doll houses. In Austria, I got the impression of: the more money one has, the bigger the house and car. In the Netherlands, people don't care. The houses look alike no matter how wealth one is and some citizens don't own a car their entire life- a bike is all one needs.