My country is among the smallest countries on the continent of Europe. Closed in by dikes, we Dutchies keep our country from flooding, with a lot of little streams and ditches all through the country to control the groundwater level as well. The translation of The Netherlands is The Low Countries. The country is below sea level and overall pretty flat with some hills, mostly in the southern part of the country. The North Sea surrounds the greater part of our country. Our neighboring countries are Germany and Belgium, with on the other side of The English Channel, Great Britain.
The greater part of the world has heard of The Netherlands or of Holland, like some like to call us as well, however there’s still a number of people that think that we’re somewhere in Scandinavia as a part of Denmark. Another funny thing is the word Dutch, that really has nothing to do with either The Netherlands or Holland. Dutch probably came from the word Deutsch, which actually means German as from Germany. People that have visited our country already know that there is a whole lot more to The Netherlands than just dikes, tulips, windmills and wooden shoes and cheese even though one of our European neighbors likes to call us cheese heads. We are really not too fond of that, but, as it goes between neighbors, we love to tease them as well with the things that they are known for. Now, those wooden shoes. Whenever you get here do not let anyone try and talk you into buying a pair for any other reason but using them as a decoration. Do not even try them on. They are worse than Chinese torture. For a while I have lived in a part of The Netherlands where it is still pretty common for the townspeople to wear those contraptions, not only around the house or while working in the fields but they’re all over the stores in town as well. After being talked into getting a pair too, after trying to walk on them, I kicked them off and used them as planters, failing to understand why anyone would ever want to inflict so much pain on themselves by walking in these things from hell.
There is a lot to see and do here, way too much to even start and mention here, but one of the things that I could really recommend is taking a boat ride through the Amsterdam canals late at night. There are dinner cruises and so called moonlight cruises. And if ever you do take the boat ride, here is something you really should do and that is to kiss your Lover under the Skinny Bridge over one of the Amsterdam canals. The story goes that Lovers who kiss each other under the Skinny Bridge stay together for all eternity and that is something wonderful to look forward to.
We are also known for speed skating and throughout the years a lot of Speed skating World and European Champions came from The Netherlands. There is so much more to tell you about this little country and too little space on this website to cover it all.
Alas, Golf appears not to be as big and common here as it is in the US and other parts of the world. There are about 60 Golf Courses all throughout The Netherlands, where as there are already more Golf Courses in the Akron area. Do not let this discourage you though. Come on over and see for yourself what The Netherlands are really about. We just might surprise you, in a pleasant way. And who knows, maybe one day we will run into each other if you decide to come and visit our town Soest or Soestdijk to see the big old white Palace of the Dutch Queen Mother, Juliana.
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Introduction To The Netherlands
All throughout our country are numerous beautiful old castles and big old houses that are being kept in mint state. There is one little old typical Dutch town called Zaandijk, where time has stood still since ages. No cars are allowed within the town limits. It has a number of old windmills of which one or two are open to the public and the town is surrounded by the typical Dutch country side. Green pastures with the Dutch black and white or red and white cows and other farm animals, the ditches and streams and real flat land all over. The best day to go there is on a sunny day when there are still huge white clouds in the sky: the typical Dutch skies over a typical old Dutch picture.
