Cultural surprises in the streets and other Emmen, Netherlands Local Custom Tips

In summertime there are a lot of activities at the Marktplein (Marketplace) and in the streets around, especially in the weekends. Often there are performances of local choirs of all kind, like shanty, barbershop, close harmony, pirates.

The most funny choirs are the pirate choir ''De Stormvogels'' with men dressed up like pirates and the Smartlappenkoor "Heerlijk Leed". They sing het 'levenslied', the song of live, most very sad songs. Often everybody, old and young people, in the street join them in singing. The choir "' Heerlijk Leed" is so popular, that there is a waitinglist to become a member.

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Sinterklaas at the 5th December is a popular event to celebrate in the Netherlands.
Sinterklaas brings a lot of presents to the sweet children and .....adults.
A few weeks before the 5th Sinterklaas arrives by boat from Spain with its ''Pieten".
Because Emmen is not reachable by water, he he arrives by train.
The cavalcade from the trainstation to the citycentre, where the Burgemeester will welcome him, passes our street.
So we are lucky to see the parade every year and getting the first ''pepernoten''.

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In summer 2003 the municipality of Emmen placed new red boxes in the centre of Emmen.
The whole centre is a pedestrian area and paved. So there is a problem for visitors with dogs. The solution .... they can put the dung of their dogs in these boxes at an very easy way.
But... most visitors of the centre didn't understand the purpose and use of this box.
And the result ... the boxes are always filled up with all kind of garbage.
And it's even not very easy to put the garbage in the boxes.

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Many people, who live in towns in apartments or in houses with only a small garden hire a volkstuin, a small piece of land to cultivate their own vegetables.
You can find these gardens along raillines, so look out for it, when travelling by train.
In general you find these gardens at the edges of the urban settlements.
Near the centre of Emmen, just beside the Langgraf I saw a strip of these small gardens.

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