My home country the Netherlands.

​Born in the Netherlands many moons ago.  It is still nice to go back for a visit and ride a bike, eat the Dutch treats (I also will put up a blog about the Dutch food you should eat when you visit the Netherlands), and go visit the towns you lived in see family and old friends. I thought I make a blog to let you know a little what my home country is like.
The Netherlands is often called Holland. But Holland is not the correct name. Holland are 2 provinces. “Noord Holland and Zuid-Holland “in the Netherlands. However, the name Holland is often used when all of the Netherlands is meant. 
The Netherlands is well known for bikes, windmills, cheese, canals, tulips, wooden shoes, trains, freight ships and Dutch masters.

                                                     My husband and me on a visit and felt like we were tourists.

​Windmills. The most important of a windmill was probably the pumping water out of the lowlands. About one third of the Netherlands lies below sea level. There are still some being used for drainage this is in Kinderdijk. The picture I put with the blog is a windmill in Kinderdijk.

​Wooden shoes. No, they do not wear them in everyday life at this moment. They used to wear them as they were affordable, water resistant and worn with goat hair socks they kept your feet warm.  The picture me sitting in the big wooden shoe is in Amsterdam. Tourists will sit in this and take a picture. I guess I  am a tourist  in my home country. lol

​Bikes. I think as soon as a child can walk they can ride a bike.  Bike lanes are everywhere.  As the country is small it is often faster to go on the bike as with the car. 

​Trains. There  is a dense railway network which connects nearly all towns and cities. It primarily supports passenger transport. It is very easy to use and the trains go often. So you never need to wait long when you miss one

On a pleasure boat for a few times. 

Visiting family and friends.

​Canals and rivers. There are lots of canals and rivers in the Netherlands. Transporting good is often done by a freight ship. We were lucky to go on one for a day and see how life is on a freight ship. It is used for pleasure boats  also. And with that we were lucky too, to go on a pleasure boat for a few times.

​Cheese. The Netherlands is the world’s largest exporter of cheese. The Dutch eat a lot of cheese. And there are a lot of different kind of cheeses. 

​Tulips. Originally from Turkey and they  were imported in the sixteenth century in the Netherlands and became very popular flower in the Netherlands.

​Food out the wall. You put money in, open one of the windows and pull out your pick warm or cold snack
​.

​Dutch Masters. One of perhaps the greatest and most famous portrait painter was Rembrandt van Rijn. The picture in my blog is the statue on Rembrandt plein (Rembrandt square) in central Amsterdam.