You must have been really unlucky - I was in Dusseldorf in September 2008 and visited 4 pubs in one afternoon (it was raining hard!!) and they were all smoke free. I haven't been to the Netherlands in years but thought they had a smoking ban (on tobacco products!) in bars.

The smoking ban in Germany has become a real farce, there was pretty much an overall ban throughout the various states, but over the last two years there have been lots of different laws brought in which have permitted smoking under certain conditions. In many of the places pubs have been allowed to have a smoking room as long as it is well ventilated, but this ruling was deemed to be unfair to very small pubs who couldn't provide a room for smokers so these pubs reverted to allowing smokers. Many pubs called themselves private clubs (where smoking is allowed) so nothing changed there.
Here in Bavaria things became very confused with some places having smoking rooms or allowing smoking at certain times. A political group who fought in local elections was formed whose only message was to allow smoking. We are about to hold a referendum in Bavaria hoping once again to ban smoking in pubs and bars. I'm not holding my breath though. I can't vote as I am not German.
A large percentage of Germany's population smokes, possibly more than many other European countries and most efforts to ban smoking have been met by very active opposition. I really don't know what the outcome is going to be.

Sachsen has a no tolerence smoking ban.

In December we didnt see anyone smoking inside.

Just back from Belgium (Ostend) and the general rule seemed to be that if an establishment sold food then there was no smoking. There were bars where you could smoke inside though (no food obviously).

Luxembourg - no smoking if food served.
Moving to total ban in 2011

Oh, I heard that Munchen is preparing a law that forbid smoking and it may spread to all Germany

Smoking has already been banned in Public Places, Restaurants, Bars etc. in Germany for a number of years now, though different states have put their own interpretation on the law. So in some places you can smoke even though it's against the law as the authorities do not bother to enforce it.
In Bavaria there was a lot of opposition to the ban and a vote was held in July for the people to say what they wanted. The voters supported the ban, so officially there shouldn't be any smoking in public buildings etc. The test will come in two weeks time when the annual Oktober Fest starts in Munich. The tent owners were told that the Fest in 2011 would be the first one to go totally non-smoking but many of the tent owners have said they will start banning smokers this year. It should be interesting.

Holland is steadily reversing the smoking ban in pubs and clubs:

http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/small-pubs-welcome-lifting-dutch-smoking-ban

Mark

In Brussels people were openly smoking in every bar we went in, that was a couple of weekends ago. Horrible!

Belgiums law is (or at least it was in Ostend) that as long as the bar doesn't serve food you can smoke. We've just returned on Friday and that was the situation then.

I'm currently living in Berlin - a city that loves to break rules and do things differently, and I too often have to put up with an extremely large amount of smoke when I go out dancing or for a few drinks. A lot of clubs say they are non-smoking, but everyone just does it anyway and the doormen don't think to do anything about it if they catch someone. It really is such a pain - I hate the smell in your hair and clothes afterwards...it lingers for ages. I really get the feeling here that things aren't going to change anytime soon. The trick is to find the bars where they have implemented the smoking ban...these definitely do exist, it just takes a bit longer to find them. There are also quite a few bars where the smoking rooms are nicely separated from the rest of the bar, and the remainder is very well ventilated.

I'm a smoker but back in the days when there wasn't smoking ban in the uk it was just disgusting to come out of a club smelling like an ashtray... My girlfriend's hair needed at least 3 washes to get the smell out. I still smoke but I think it's fair enough for those who don't.

Meanwhile, smoking has been banned and is only allowed in certain bars and separated rooms, but will soon be banned completely in most areas (it alsready is in some). Just giving an update