The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in Northwestern Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands is often called Holland, which is formally incorrect as North and South Holland are merely two of its twelve provinces . The word Dutch is used to refer to the people, the language, and anything appertaining to the Netherlands.
The Monarchy
The monarch is the head of state, at present Queen Beatrix. Constitutionally, the position is equipped with considerable powers, but in practice it has become a ceremonial function. The monarch can exert most influence during the formation of a new cabinet, where they serve as neutral arbiter between the political parties.
Queen Beatrix
The Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix succeeded her mother as Queen of the Netherlands in 1980. From that date, Her Majesty formed part of the government. The Queen was married to Prince Claus. They had three sons: Prince Willem-Alexander, Prince Friso and Prince Constantijn. The eldest, Prince Willem-Alexander – the Prince of Orange – will succeed .
The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 27% of its area and 60% of its population located below sea level. In the everyday life of Holland the bike is a familiar sight. Sixteen million people own approximately 13 million bicycles! Nearly everyone has one, and some people even have two: a Dutchman without a bike is like a fish without water! Holland is the ultimate cycling country. The Dutch use the bicycle as a means of transportation rather than just a recreational sport; using their bike for daily shopping and to commute to work.
Cycling in the Netherlands
Dutch Windmills
The Netherlands is so closely associated with windmills, that it’s often the first fact people recall about the country.There are a very pleasing number of remaining windmills in the Netherlands - the number is about 1150 and rising, in that the Dutch only count complete workable mills, and in the past 10 years especially many extensive rebuilds have occured to add to this number of windmills.
Clogs
Traditional clogs are made out of many different species of wood (willow, poplar, birch, beech, alder wood). They are associated with the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden (though Swedish clogs do not resemble Dutch clogs) as part of the touristic “Holland”/Sweden image, where they are seen as a form of national dress. Because of this, Dutch people are sometimes called cloggies, that is, clog-wearers. In Dutch, clogs are known as klompen. The traditional, all wooden clogs have been officially labelled as safety shoes, passing European standards for the CE mark with flying colours. Today, Dutch clogs are available in many tourist shops. Wearing clogs is considered to be healthy for the feet. Despite that fact, the Dutch don’t use them much anymore for everyday use, but clogs are still used by people working in their gardens, farms, and by planters.
TULIPS FROM AMSTERDAM
Max Bygraves
When it’s Spring again I’ll bring again
Tulips from Amsterdam
With a heart thats true I’ll give to you
Tulips from Amsterdam
I can’t wait until the day you fill
These eager arms of mine
Like the windmill keeps on turning
That’s how my heart keeps on yearning
For the day I know we can share these
Tulips from Amsterdam.
When it’s Spring again I’ll bring again
Tulips from Amsterdam
With a heart thats true I’ll give to you
Tulips from Amsterdam
I can’t wait until the day you fill
These eager arms of mine
Like the windmill keeps on turning
That’s how my heart keeps on yearning
For the day I know we can share these
Tulips from Amsterdam.
Tulips from Amsterdam
The tulip has been introduced in the Netherlands in the middle of 16th century from the Ottoman Empire. Until today, this flower remains the Dutch favorite, one of the symbols of the country. A small private museum just across the bridge from the Anne Frank’s House shows the history of the Dutch fascination with the tulip and sells in its shop various bulbs of the most beautiful existing flowers.
The Amsterdam tulip museum
A Dutch company trading in flower bulbs, also active in the US, established this small and nice Tulip Museum below its shop with flower bulbs at the Prinsengracht. Several main areas of interest as the history of the tulip and its cultivation as well as tulip mania are documented.
The feel
This is a friendly, small museum about the cultivation and the history of tulip, very complete through the multimedia presentations on several LCD screens. A must for people interested in gardening, flowers and of course history of the tulip mania in the Netherlands.
Vincent Van Gogh
Birth Year : 1853
Death Year : 1890
Country : Netherlands
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is “The Potato Eaters” (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil’s gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.
In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself “for the good of all.” During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh’s finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh’s inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
Starry nights by Vincent VanGogh
The Starry Night was completed near the mental asylum of Saint-Remy, 13 months before Van Gogh’s death at the age of 37. Vincent’s mental instability is legend. He attempted to take Paul Gauguin’s life and later committed himself to several asylums in hopes of an unrealized cure.
Van Gogh painted furiously and The Starry Night vibrates with rockets of burning yellow while planets gyrate like cartwheels. The hills quake and heave, yet the cosmic gold fireworks that swirl against the blue sky are somehow restful.
Owen Dean Calleja and Gary Spiteri
Year 5 A
Tulips from Amsterdam
The tulip has been introduced in the Netherlands in the middle of 16th century from the Ottoman Empire. Until today, this flower remains the Dutch favorite, one of the symbols of the country. A small private museum just across the bridge from the Anne Frank’s House shows the history of the Dutch fascination with the tulip and sells in its shop various bulbs of the most beautiful existing flowers.
The Amsterdam tulip museum
A Dutch company trading in flower bulbs, also active in the US, established this small and nice Tulip Museum below its shop with flower bulbs at the Prinsengracht. Several main areas of interest as the history of the tulip and its cultivation as well as tulip mania are documented.
The feel
This is a friendly, small museum about the cultivation and the history of tulip, very complete through the multimedia presentations on several LCD screens. A must for people interested in gardening, flowers and of course history of the tulip mania in the Netherlands.
Vincent Van Gogh
Birth Year : 1853
Death Year : 1890
Country : Netherlands
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland. The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness. He remained in Belgium to study art, determined to give happiness by creating beauty. The works of his early Dutch period are somber-toned, sharply lit, genre paintings of which the most famous is “The Potato Eaters” (1885). In that year van Gogh went to Antwerp where he discovered the works of Rubens and purchased many Japanese prints.
In 1886 he went to Paris to join his brother Théo, the manager of Goupil’s gallery. In Paris, van Gogh studied with Cormon, inevitably met Pissarro, Monet, and Gauguin, and began to lighten his very dark palette and to paint in the short brushstrokes of the Impressionists. His nervous temperament made him a difficult companion and night-long discussions combined with painting all day undermined his health. He decided to go south to Arles where he hoped his friends would join him and help found a school of art. Gauguin did join him but with disastrous results. In a fit of epilepsy, van Gogh pursued his friend with an open razor, was stopped by Gauguin, but ended up cutting a portion of his ear lobe off. Van Gogh then began to alternate between fits of madness and lucidity and was sent to the asylum in Saint-Remy for treatment.
In May of 1890, he seemed much better and went to live in Auvers-sur-Oise under the watchful eye of Dr. Gachet. Two months later he was dead, having shot himself “for the good of all.” During his brief career he had sold one painting. Van Gogh’s finest works were produced in less than three years in a technique that grew more and more impassioned in brushstroke, in symbolic and intense color, in surface tension, and in the movement and vibration of form and line. Van Gogh’s inimitable fusion of form and content is powerful; dramatic, lyrically rhythmic, imaginative, and emotional, for the artist was completely absorbed in the effort to explain either his struggle against madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
Starry nights by Vincent VanGogh
The Starry Night was completed near the mental asylum of Saint-Remy, 13 months before Van Gogh’s death at the age of 37. Vincent’s mental instability is legend. He attempted to take Paul Gauguin’s life and later committed himself to several asylums in hopes of an unrealized cure.
Van Gogh painted furiously and The Starry Night vibrates with rockets of burning yellow while planets gyrate like cartwheels. The hills quake and heave, yet the cosmic gold fireworks that swirl against the blue sky are somehow restful.
Owen Dean Calleja and Gary Spiteri
Year 5 A
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