[Nanook]

In our industry in Holland we officially have a 38 hours working week. In practise we do 40 hours. The excess hours are compensated by 13 days annually. About half of these days can be fixed by the company e.g. between Christmas and New Year. The rest is at you own choice as long as you take them before June 30 of that year.
Next to that we have 25 holidays plus extra days based on your age and number of years you work for your company.

In my case it all together adds up to about 45 paid holidays (= 9 weeks) per year. Not bad.

If we don't take them all in a particular year, you can carry them over to the next year. So 2008 I started with 83 days.