Paper tickets are rapidly being phased our. Two weeks ago I went to Liege, with my bike, intending to go cycling in the Ardennes. Imagine my surprise at encountering a train conductor who confessed she had "never seen" a cross-border bike ticket.

@Tulips: <i>i will stick to my, so far, succesful strategy of putting a polite note in the window of my car.</i>
At €59, parking fines in Rotterdam (a.k.a. "Parking aftertax") is not a matter of small change. Rotterdam parking attendants, like everywhere else, are completely humourless and won't accept any apology when you're even a minute or 2 late. If you so far have not had the pleasure of being fined, you have been lucky.

See http://www.rotterdam.nl/productarkeercontrole . Use google to translate if you don't read Dutch.

More information on paying for parking in Rotterdam: http://www.rotterdam.nl/betaalwijzen_parkeren . You can pay by CC through a mobile app too (provided you have an iPhone or Android mobile phone).

As you say, chipknip will be phased out January 2015 - still more than a year from now. It should be possible to buy a prepaid chipknip card at the tourist information offices ("VVV kantoren"). The PDF providing the POS's as available on the earlier mentioned site for some reason won't load, if you really want to know you can always ask 'm by e-mail.

I agree that these things are, to say the least, suboptimal for foreigners (and Dutch citizens alike). I for one refuse to buy an OV chipcard; when they stop selling paper tickets I'll simply not travel by train anymore (not that I do that very often now...).