Great fun ‘im Schweizerhaus’

Although I lived most of my life in Nijmegen (in the east of the Netherlands), I also lived for about four years in a little village near the German border which is called Millingen aan de Rijn. Although this village is quite busy on itself (it is a very popular place for both German and Dutch bicycle tourists), we usually went to the many clubs and bars Germany has to offer. These included E-Dry in Geldern, Empire in Weeze, World Centre in Kleve, and even Tor 3 in Dusseldorf. Among the few close friends that are still left after moving to The Hague area, some of my closest friends are from that timeframe.

When one of them asked me to join him and some old friends with an old-school evening somewhere in Kleve, I could not reject. So last weekend, we met in Millingen and started the evening with a few drinks at a local bar, after which we took a cab to Kleve. Since it appeared that all those old bars have disappeared or replaced by some other obscure joint, the only fun place we could remember from those old days was the Schweizerhaus.

Ten years ago, the Schweizerhaus was really the kind of bar where you find a lot of older women and everlasting singles trying to find a mate for life (or just that evening). Most of the time, it was just incredibly funny observing the audience. And although the Cha Cha and the Jive have became popular again due to television programs such as Dancing with the Stars, in the Schweizerhaus it never lost popularity at all. Well, being there in 2007, I can only conclude that time has simply stand still over there! Just imagine, where can you get 5 beer (of 0.5 liter) for just 10 euros these days?

Anyway, luckily for us, they've introduced a completely new club in the basement called the Swisshouse. And even though we were too old for the new part and too young for the old part, we had a great time (partly facilitated by the beers). We came home at about 4:30 in the morning, which by itself was a miracle looking at the speed the German cab drove us home. Will be repeated again...