The Netherlands experiences an official cold wave for the first time since 1997. The temperature did not reach above zero degrees Celsius in De Bilt since 7 o’clock in the morning of 29 January. Also, the temperature dropped last night for the third night in a row to -10 degrees.

Before there can be talk of an official cold wave, the temperature at least 5 days to get above freezing in De Bilt. In addition, the strict minimum of three nights with freezing temperatures of -10 degrees or colder, leaves a spokesman weeronline.nl know.

For an official cold wave there must be 5 days with a maximum below 0C and at least 3 nights in a row with freezing temperatures of -10 degrees or colder, according to a spokesman of weeronline.nl

According to Dutch meteorologists, the cold wave is very special: “It has been 15 years since the Netherlands had a cold wave.” The Netherlands had 32 cold waves since 1901.

Also, next week WeerOnline sees little change in the weather. “Until next weekend, we seem pretty confident that the freezing cold will continue”.

The cold wave has also offered opportunities for Ice skaters in the Netherlands who are hopeful they could stage a race that hasn’t happened in more than a decade

The Netherlands almost mythical Elfstedentocht (Eleven Cities Tour) ice skating marathon could be staged later this month for the first time in 15 years, organizers said Monday.

The race, held along a 125-mile network of canals connecting 11 towns and cities in Friesland province, would cause a national frenzy, drawing thousands of participants and more than a million spectators. It was last held in 1997.

A man tried to take advantage of the weather and toss a snowball with a package of drugs in it over the wall of a prison.

Many parts of Europe have been considerably worse off, with a big freeze already claiming more than 260 lives.

In Italy, weather experts said it was the coldest week for 27 years.

The first snow fell in the Northern provinces this morning. The snow is slowly moving south. The snow will last approximately 3 to 4 hours. Most snow is expected in the west. At many places can have 3 to 5 inches snow fall.

Weather Online says the Netherlands will face about 10 inches of powder snow. The ANWB expects snow will cause problems on the road Friday afternoon. The weather is also bad news for ice skating fans, the snow will prevent ice growth.

After the snow front has passed, it remains preliminary dry with moderate and severe frost.

The coming weekend promises to be the coldest in years. Both tonight, tomorrow night and in the night of Sunday until Monday the minimum calculated temperature in the Netherlands will be between minus 10 and minus 17 degrees, possible even lower.

The total number of foreign tourists visiting the Netherlands reached 11.3 million in 2011, official data said.

The Netherlands attracted 3 percent more visitors from abroad compared to last year, according to Dutch Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC).

The organization expects more tourists this year. “The Netherlands benefit from more Germans and Belgians tourists who stay closer to home in economically uncertain times” said general manager Jos Vranken of NBTC.

Also the relatively weaker euro makes the Netherlands more attractive and the growing tourist flow from emerging countries continues.

The almost 400,000 more tourists who visited the Netherlands last year, generated 160 million Euros more income to a total of 4.5 billion Euros. There were especially more Germans and Belgians, but also more Americans visited the Netherlands.

This study reveals that users from the Netherlands are the most active within top countries. 33% of accounts located in the Netherlands posted at least one public message between September 1st, 2011 and November 30th, 2011, making the Netherlands the top country with the highest rate of Twitter users posting tweets, before Japan. The global average is only 27%, as many Twitter users mostly use the service to read tweets from others.

If one also considers accounts that have been updated in some other way (e.g. the user did not post but changed its account avatar or followed another user), the Netherlands also rank first, with at least 52% of users who connected to Twitter service during the period. The global average for the same metric is 48%.

The U.S. still top at the 1st place on Twitter in terms of accounts with 107.7 million accounts. Brazil is now the second country with 33.3 million accounts, surpassing Japan now third at 29.9 million.

Semiocast has analyzed 383 million of Twitter user profiles created before January 1st 2012. Drawing from its experience with previous studies, Semiocast used its proprietary platform, databases and tools to process user profiles in order to determine the location of each user using all available information.

Last year, 118 new multinationals settled in the capital and surrounding area, according to Alderman Carolien Gehrels (Economic Affairs).

In 2010 Amsterdam attracted 122 foreign companies.

Most newcomers to the capital and surrounding area are active in the ICT, creative industries and financial and business services. The new companies created 1231 new jobs.

On January 1 this year, a total of more than 2,200 foreign companies are established in Amsterdam.

A quarter of these companies have its headquarters in the capital. Amsterdam attracts most headquarters after London according municipal figures. In 2011 there were 31 new headquarters in Amsterdam.

The majority of the international companies, who settled in and around Amsterdam in 2011, are from North America (43). Amsterdam is also very popular with entrepreneurs from Asia (37) and Europe (35). Two new companies come from Australia, one has its base in Brazil.

Amsterdam attracted 105 new international companies in both years 2009 and 2008. In 2007 there were 94 and 86 a year earlier.

The fiscal climate in the Netherlands is the main reason many companies register a subsidiary and why the Netherlands is sometimes called a tax haven.

Northern Europe leads the world in laying out a social safety net for children and poorer parents. With the lowest child-poverty rate among developed nations, Denmark was named the best country for work-life balance followed by Norway second. Finland ranks fourth followed by Belgium ranking fifth.

People in the Netherlands work 1378 hours a year, the lowest rate in the OECD … In the past two decades, the rise in female employment in the Netherlands has been rapid: in the early 80’s the rate was amongst the lowest in the OECD at around 35%, in 2009 it had doubled to over 70%. However, much of the increase in female employment has been on a part-time basis.

Dutch women work almost 2 hours more per day than men, and female employment has climbed to over 70%, if you count part-time work.

What constitutes a balance between work and life? The OECD settled on three chief variables: (1) The share of the labor force that works very long hours (more than 50 hours a week); (2) time spent on “leisure and personal care” (defined in contrast to paid or unpaid work as spending time with friends, going to the movies, pursuing hobbies, sleeping, eating, etc.); and (3) employment rates for women who have children. The United States, which leads most of the world in share of mothers who are working, lagged in leisure time and share of overworked employees.

Dutch movie theaters sold a record-breaking 30 million movie tickets in 2011, the country’s best box office year since 1978. This was due in large part to the broadened appeal of Dutch-made films last year.

That announced Wilco Wolfers, chairman of the NFC in the Pathé Tuschinski Theatre in Amsterdam.

The most popular movie of 2011 was “Gooische Vrouwen“, with more than 1.9 million visitors, a record which was last achieved in 1986 with the movie Flodder. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ranks second with more than 1.3 million visitors, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides ranks third with more than one million visitors. At four and five are the Smurfs, with over 877,000 visitors, and The Hangover Part 2, with nearly 766,000 visitors.

Other Dutch blockbusters were Nova Zembla 3D, The first Dutch 3D movie which attracted over 623,327 visitors, but is still running. Sonny Boy drew 417,270 visitors, New Kids Turbo 358,452 visitors, but in 2010 there were well over one million and New Kids Nitro 366,887 so far.

The share of Dutch films in overall attendance numbers rose from 14.8 percent in 2010 to 22 percent last year. An increase in viewers from 4.4 to 6.8 million in the past year.

The success of the Dutch cinemas, movie theaters and arthouses, are mainly due to the success of the Dutch movies, the introduction of 3D movies and the increase in the number of cinemas and seats, according to the Dutch film industry.

Despite the success of Dutch cinema, the cinema industry is concerned about the announced cuts. The industry expects that there will be fewer Dutch movies to be released in 2013.

Watch the trailer of Gooische Vrouwen, the most popular movie of 2011.

Singapore’s Orchard Road tops the list followed by Luxembourg’s Liberty Avenue.

A French company sent shopping spies to more than 400 stores in 30 popular shopping streets and asked them to grade their experiences, including customer service and restrooms.

Orchard Road scored high marks in nearly all areas, with excellent customer service in most stores and ultra-clean streets.

The Champs Elysees in Paris ranked only 16th. Researchers reported that customer services in most stores were unsatisfactory and the salespeople did not smile enough.

The other two streets in the top five are Bagdat Avenue in Istanbul and Sao Paulo’s Oscar Freire. Linking Road, Bandra in Mumbai came at the bottom of the list.

Amsterdam‘s mini Fifth Avenue, Pieter Cornelisz (P.C.) Hooftstraat, located in the Museum Quarter neighborhood, is home to high-end classics (Chanel, Gucci, Hermés, Louis Vuitton), jewelry (Chopard, Cartier) and lifestyle stores, as well as several boutiques selling more luxury labels.

The number of films that reached gold (100,000 visitors), platinum (400,000), diamonds (one million) or crystal state (10,000 visitors documentary) has risen compared to 2010.

Last year 15 films received gold status, two more than in 2010. New Kids Nitro, The Heineken Kidnapping and Bennie Stout received the award.

The platinum film was awarded to five movies: Dik Trom, Loft, Sonny Boy, Nova Zembla and Gooische Vrouwen. This is two more than the year before.

New Kids Turbo and Gooische Vrouwen attracted more than 1 million visitors.

American magazine Variety said Nova Zembla has all key ingredients, A love story, a large ship and nasty icebergs, though Dutch producer-turned-director Reinout Oerlemans’ second effort is no “Titanic.”

Kuipers stayed 10 days, 20 hours, 52 minutes and 15 seconds in space during his last journey. That milestone he broke slightly after Sunday 11 hours Dutch time.

Kuipers will stay this time five months in space. He will returns to earth on May 16. Kuipers is the third astronaut from the Netherlands. Dr. Ockels and Louis van den Berg had been one week in space in 1985.

The first days in space were mainly dedicated to get used to, explore and enjoy the view, said Kuipers.

Watch the special New Year’s message from the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station.