Of course now, RM's website is acting all innocent, and politely tells me that the parcel was delivered in the Netherlands on 29th April, completely omitting the detour to Beijing like it never even happened...
According to detailed tracking it spent a week in or around China/getting to the Netherlands, but at least once it was there Dutch Post dealt with it quickly.
All's well that ends well. Thread can now be closed, mods, as ponies are where they should be and all's right with the world