April 1 brought with it the usual round of April Fools jokes in the Netherlands – from a tax on cats to bargain tickets to the US.

Amsterdam’s tourist board announced that foreign tourists would have to take a test before being allowed to ride a bike on the city streets – a suggestion which many locals probably think would be a good idea.
And transport users lobby group Rover told members a blob of cement glue on their new public transport smart card would make the entry gates spring open spontaneously.

Paint

Chemicals group Akzo Nobel came up with a paint which it called Invisulux which makes things invisible.
‘We have finally converted science fiction into science fact,’ Norwegian nanotech expert Olaf Proli said in the press release. ‘We’ve been able to unravel the mysteries of the ultraviolet portion of the solar spectrum to develop a coating which is transparent to visible light.’
Car sales group Pon announced plans to move into air travel with the launch of Pon Air and offered its 800 staff a return ticket to the US for just €20 to celebrate.
A school in Leeuwarden asked parents to pick a colour for the microchip which would be installed in their children’s shoes to track whether they were truanting or not.
New taxes
Radio show Vroege Vogels paid a lot of attention to a new political party – Partij voor de Planten – the pro plant party, which wants more green in the streets and a tax on pavements.
Rotterdam’s Blijdorp zoo announced its sharks were to be muzzled and Noord Holland province said it was to experiment with a tax on cats.
According to the comments on DutchNews.nl, many readers thought the budget cut suggestions were the best joke of the lot.