Before visiting I did not know the difference between Holland and the Netherlands. You probably all know this already, but in case some of you don’t, here it is:
The Netherlands is a country comprised of twelve provinces. One of these is called North Holland, another is called South Holland and the other ten are pretty much “spare Belgium’s” to quote our cycle tour guide. Amsterdam, the alpha city renown worldwide for its liberal attitudes is in North Holland and Den Haag is in South Holland. So the name ‘Holland’ dominates terminology relating to this area of the world because the Holland’s are by far the most newsworthy and the most popular tourist destinations.
That’s interesting huh?
Unsurprisingly Dutch people from the spare Belgium’s are not entirely pleased with this state of affairs. So if you would like to make friends with your local Dutch person it would be wise to refer to their homeland as ‘The Netherlands’.
We spent a couple of weeks in The Netherlands, predominantly in the Holland’s, and predominantly in Amsterdam (I know, way to stay on the beaten path). It is a truly fantastic city – not only for its sex, drugs and cheese but also for its architecture, history and culture. And Kate and Michael were there, which was brulyant! (that’s brilliant in Scottish).
Like many other European cities we've visited, we started out with a city tour to get our bearings... this time on bikes! And we thought it was hard walking in Amsterdam...
After we gave up on the bikes and the beautiful canals, we hit the coffee shops to kick back.
They sold this funny green herb which when smoked made the mostly average coffee taste as good as New Zeland coffee. Amazing.
One day Soph & Kate had a hankering for cheese, clogs,windmills and quaint villages...
Forever suspicious of tour groups, me and Mike grabbed some bikes and took the ferry to the non-touristy north shore where we found some projects, drank a beer in a park, and found another IAMSTERDAM sign.
And no trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a visit to the red light district...
The Netherlands is a country comprised of twelve provinces. One of these is called North Holland, another is called South Holland and the other ten are pretty much “spare Belgium’s” to quote our cycle tour guide. Amsterdam, the alpha city renown worldwide for its liberal attitudes is in North Holland and Den Haag is in South Holland. So the name ‘Holland’ dominates terminology relating to this area of the world because the Holland’s are by far the most newsworthy and the most popular tourist destinations.
That’s interesting huh?
Unsurprisingly Dutch people from the spare Belgium’s are not entirely pleased with this state of affairs. So if you would like to make friends with your local Dutch person it would be wise to refer to their homeland as ‘The Netherlands’.
We spent a couple of weeks in The Netherlands, predominantly in the Holland’s, and predominantly in Amsterdam (I know, way to stay on the beaten path). It is a truly fantastic city – not only for its sex, drugs and cheese but also for its architecture, history and culture. And Kate and Michael were there, which was brulyant! (that’s brilliant in Scottish).
Like many other European cities we've visited, we started out with a city tour to get our bearings... this time on bikes! And we thought it was hard walking in Amsterdam...
After we gave up on the bikes and the beautiful canals, we hit the coffee shops to kick back.
They sold this funny green herb which when smoked made the mostly average coffee taste as good as New Zeland coffee. Amazing.
One day Soph & Kate had a hankering for cheese, clogs,windmills and quaint villages...
Forever suspicious of tour groups, me and Mike grabbed some bikes and took the ferry to the non-touristy north shore where we found some projects, drank a beer in a park, and found another IAMSTERDAM sign.
And no trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a visit to the red light district...
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