Visiting in the Netherlands 2011

It started with the The Botany of Desire, a documentary about man's relationship with apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. For some time I had wanted to visit the Netherlands during the spring to see the tulip fields. As I have three weeks off in March/April 2011, I felt compelled to go.  It was a bit of a wrestle with myself.  Flying off to another country always has some risk. But, I had been to Amsterdam several times, and now I wanted to go beyond.

The Netherlands is a small country, only slightly bigger than the state of Maryland. Water is a big issue here, as 20% of the country is water.  Much of North Holland is reclaimed land, with dykes and water pumps that work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to put water back out to the sea.

I have written this before, but I will repeat it here.  Holland was never the name of the country.  Holland was a province.  It has now been split into two provinces, Nord Holland, and Suid Holland. Nederland, which means low country, has always been the name of the country. The people speak Nederlands, and are known as Nederlanders.  "Dutch" is a misnomer on the part of the English during Medieval times.  They could not distinguish between the Nederlanders and the Germans.  So they corrupted the German word Deutch  to Dutch. Deutch is German for German.  All things being accurate, Germany did not exist in Medieval times.  While Dutch and German are related languages, they are not mutually intelligible.  I understand German, and cannot understand Dutch.  I have to work at it.  Fortunately, Most Nederlanders speak English.

Dutch is not the only official language.  The people in the province of Friesland (Fryslan) (light green province) speak Frisian.  The province capital, Leeuwarden (Ljouwart) was the birthplace of one Gertrude Margarete Zelle - better known as Mata Hari.

I will be spending my time in the provinces of Nord and Suid Holland, while based in Amsterdam.