I will certainly try that too....thanks

Will try that too thanks. First I've requested a solution from the reseller (but I really don't want to send it back because it's such a great watch)

I’d definitely recommend initially take this whole issue up with the reseller, as they have have sold you a North American device not a European one; hence Garmin Express will only ever offer you North America maps. Did the reseller advertise the watch as North American? If not they are probably breaking an EU advertising or consumer protection law.

If you can’t resolve this with the reseller, and the free OSM maps out there don’t meet your expectations (for example, the Garmin maps have a heatmap/popularity routing layer baked in that the free ones don’t have), then it might be worth talking to Garmin Customer Support to see if there’s any chance they could move your device ID on their servers to be a European watch (this is a long shot really). Worst case and last resort, you can buy the correct European maps here https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/586905#overview 

Fredderic said:

That being said, for me the openfietsmap.nl are simply better maps,

I concur. Especially the integration of the knooppunten as preferred routes is what makes these maps so good (in benelux)

Thanks....very usefull info. I've send a request to the reseller because it was not advertised as a N American version. Only thing it said 

(Support EU Languages)

But for me that was no give away that the watch would not support european maps.

So let's see what happens.

How does that work? Is that something you can specify on the watch or is that automatically implemented some how?

Yes, just open the watch in file mode and delete the north american map file. Make a backup of the file to your computer in case you delete the wrong one :)

This is implemented in the openfietsmap maps. 

I think the ones from garmin.openstreetmap.nl look much worse than the ones from openfietsmap.nl, for one thing they are missing elevation lines. Here is a comparison:

from http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ Using 'Generic Routable (New Style)'

And from openfietsmap.nl

Ah, looks nicer indeed... do the openfietsmap maps also contain all hike paths and everything though?