Snowpocalypse, Den Haag edition

Holy icefield, Batman! I brought the Snowpocalypse of 2010 to the Hague!

What started as a heavy snowfall on Friday has grown by maybe an inch or six per day since. But it isn't the amount of snow that has me alarmed - it's that the snow is staying put.

Friday

Today

I don't mean that the snow isn't melting - though it's not. I mean that no one seems to be making any effort to move it.

Christmas shopping on an icefield

I can sympathize with a city government that doesn't own any snow plows because it "never snows". This is why a light dusting of snow can shut down Portland. But there is a further disconcerting cultural/legal difference I was not expecting: No one here clears their sidewalk. Not homeowners, not the government, not even businesses.

So five days later, it's more or less like it just stopped snowing two minutes ago. The snow on the roads is browner than that on the sidewalks, but otherwise it can be hard to tell where the sidewalks end and the streets begin. Or where the sidewalks are, period. Venturing outside is like an arctic expedition.

Sidewalk? Who needs a sidewalk?

But venture outside I must, because I will give the locals this: there is no capitulating to the snow here. Sure, the trams may stop running, and people may be slipping all over the sidewalks, but as fas as I can tell - since I cannot understand Dutch TV news - schools do not close, government offices do not have snow days, shops stay open, trash gets collected, drivers (particularly bus drivers) seem oblivious to the snow on the roads, and so I along with everyone else must suffer through two-hour commutes until things return to normal.

(Yes, there are still some hardy bicyclists out there, and yes, they do not wear helmets even when riding over snow and ice while sharing the road with cars likewise ill-equipped for the weather. And yes, I have seen at least two bicyclists wipe out in the middle of the road.)

I admire this chutzpah in the face of Snowmageddon II. But tonight I have to make my way to Schiphol Airport - a rail trip that has been challenging recently in good weather. Nervous? Yes. Ready for adventure? Yes. Eager to escape the icefield of Den Haag? Definitely.