Back from Sabbatical
After a nice, long visit with my father, I am back blogging. My dad and I played tourists in Rotterdam, and after Dan finished his exams, we toured around the Dutch countryside. Coming from America, it is easy to be entertained by how small this country is. One of my earlier posts discussed the petite-ness of all things Dutch, from cars to refrigerators. Well, the country is petite, too! It is about the size of Massachusetts, and it is easy to drive from the south to the north in one day. Somehow, though, we managed to rack up 900 kilometers on our rented VW Golf in a four-day time span. Here are some thoughts on what we saw. (Pictures, too.)
Outside of the Randstad, consisting of cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam and where most of the population lives, there are quaint little villages and larger cities, many windmills – old and modern, lots of traffic circles, canal after canal after canal, and fields and farmland with sheep, cows, and TULIPS! The tulip fields are simple amazing, eye-popping yellows, reds, pinks, oranges, purples, and whites seem to be around ever bend in the province of North Holland this time of year. Sheep and cows…I adore the little lambs running around in the fields these days. And there were no close calls with flocks baa-ing or herds moo-ing at us. It is spectacular to look out at the completely flat landscape and see the fields dotted with grazing sheep and cows. There is water everywhere in this country. I think my loyal readers know that by now! But it really becomes apparent when gazing out into a field and being able to see sails sticking out among the green pastures. Sure enough…a canal or a lake is there. Ahh…traffic circles. I only had to drive through two or three of them multiple times to figure out where to get off. They are pretty fun! The windmills simply remind us that, yes, this is a windy country, much to our dismay. We really aren’t that fond of windy weather, yet we’ve managed to live near Chicago, the Windy City and in the Netherlands, the Windy Country for our post-high school education. And the villages and cities – as Dad says, none really have straight roads, and most roads in the towns are narrow. Yet there is a charm to these towns that can easily date back to the 1500 and 1600s. We miss that here in WWII-destructed Rotterdam.
The Dutch often talk about their relationship with the sea, and with so much of the country lying below sea level, it is easy to understand why. In an effort to prevent massive flooding throughout the land, the Dutch have constructed dikes and dams everywhere. (No little Dutch boys with the fingers in the dikes, though.) We drove across the 30+ kilometer long Afsluitdijk, which turned the salt-water Zuiderzee into a fresh-water meer. It changed the economy of the Zuiderzee area substantially, but at a more predictable pace than one flood would have allowed. And where there is a sea, there is a coast! On one of the Frisian Islands, Texel, we marveled at the beach so wide that it took us over ten minutes to cross. If the climate were a little better, Florida would have a serious rival.
I’m so fortunate to be living in another country. There are so many hidden gems lying in places most tourists would not have time to see. But if you would like to see these places, I charge only a modest fee to be your tour guide! Just ask Dad!
Outside of the Randstad, consisting of cities like Rotterdam and Amsterdam and where most of the population lives, there are quaint little villages and larger cities, many windmills – old and modern, lots of traffic circles, canal after canal after canal, and fields and farmland with sheep, cows, and TULIPS! The tulip fields are simple amazing, eye-popping yellows, reds, pinks, oranges, purples, and whites seem to be around ever bend in the province of North Holland this time of year. Sheep and cows…I adore the little lambs running around in the fields these days. And there were no close calls with flocks baa-ing or herds moo-ing at us. It is spectacular to look out at the completely flat landscape and see the fields dotted with grazing sheep and cows. There is water everywhere in this country. I think my loyal readers know that by now! But it really becomes apparent when gazing out into a field and being able to see sails sticking out among the green pastures. Sure enough…a canal or a lake is there. Ahh…traffic circles. I only had to drive through two or three of them multiple times to figure out where to get off. They are pretty fun! The windmills simply remind us that, yes, this is a windy country, much to our dismay. We really aren’t that fond of windy weather, yet we’ve managed to live near Chicago, the Windy City and in the Netherlands, the Windy Country for our post-high school education. And the villages and cities – as Dad says, none really have straight roads, and most roads in the towns are narrow. Yet there is a charm to these towns that can easily date back to the 1500 and 1600s. We miss that here in WWII-destructed Rotterdam.
The Dutch often talk about their relationship with the sea, and with so much of the country lying below sea level, it is easy to understand why. In an effort to prevent massive flooding throughout the land, the Dutch have constructed dikes and dams everywhere. (No little Dutch boys with the fingers in the dikes, though.) We drove across the 30+ kilometer long Afsluitdijk, which turned the salt-water Zuiderzee into a fresh-water meer. It changed the economy of the Zuiderzee area substantially, but at a more predictable pace than one flood would have allowed. And where there is a sea, there is a coast! On one of the Frisian Islands, Texel, we marveled at the beach so wide that it took us over ten minutes to cross. If the climate were a little better, Florida would have a serious rival.
I’m so fortunate to be living in another country. There are so many hidden gems lying in places most tourists would not have time to see. But if you would like to see these places, I charge only a modest fee to be your tour guide! Just ask Dad!
posted by Beth at 8:48 PM
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