Very busy today in various Belgian cities – by the Dutch. Because of the lockdown here, many people went across the border, just like in recent days, in search of entertainment. In Belgium you can just shop and lunch or dinner in a cafe is no problem at all.
The enormous influx of Dutch people led to heavy traffic on the roads to the southern neighbours. In Antwerp, the police warned that there was a lot of traffic in the city center. The police directed traffic in the old town to other places, so that parking could be done at one of the P&R locations outside the center.
It was also very busy on the trains to Belgium. The NS advised people not to take the train to Belgium anymore, because keeping sufficient distance turned out to be impossible.
Stay at home
Happy with the arrival of all those Dutch, ie Governor Cathy Berx of Antwerp is not. “The measures are absolutely necessary to reduce the pressure on care. Then it is a shame that those measures are circumvented by crossing the border and doing what is not allowed in our own country,” she says. “It is not banned, but it is regrettable. And it undermines the effectiveness of those measures.”
As far as Berx is concerned, the Dutch are not coming to visit for a while. “The Dutch are always welcome, especially in Antwerp, but now is really not the time. So please, not now. Stay at home, stick to the measures. Think of your health and that of everyone.”
Sea of yellow license plates
But the Dutch pay little attention to that advice not to come now. If you look in the parking garages in Antwerp, you will see a sea of yellow license plates.
“Mark Rutte doesn’t allow us to shop in the Netherlands. So we have to do it here,” says a young man from The Hague. A woman from Deventer goes to eat and shop in the Belgian city. “Because everything is closed in the Netherlands.” And another Dutchman, who visits the Museum aan de Stroom, has been “at home for two weeks”. “So we really want to get out.”
The Dutch are also arriving in other Belgian cities. On the Belgian Radio 2, a hotel entrepreneur in Ghent says that the Dutch “account for about 80 percent of the occupancy”. “After the lockdown was announced in the Netherlands, the number of last minute bookings has increased significantly.” According to the VRT, there are also more Dutch people in the hotel in Hasselt than usual.
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