| Page Views: 1,955 Last Visit to Netherlands: October, 2005 I Visit Here Frequently | The Netherlands by sammie - last update: Oct 26, 2005 |
The Netherlands is a very beautiful country. Zierikzee (pronounce as siericksee) is my hometown. Zierikzee lies is Zeeland(Sealand) down south in The Netherlands. Take a look at schouwenduiveland specially the "fotoboek" shows you some nice pictures of the whole of Schouwen.
If you like to know more about Schouwen Duiveland or/ and the towns, see my travelogue History of Schouwen Duiveland on my Province zeeland page. I'm still working on the travelogues, but they already contain information. So feel free to watch! |
I'm a Nederlander not a hollander What do i mean with this?
There is often confusion about Holland (and Dutch by that way, but that's another story). Some people call the Netherlands, Holland, but it is not the same. Holland is only a small part of the Netherlands and like North and South Dakota or Virgina and West vergina there are two Hollands.
"North-Holland" and "South-Holland"
Holland used to be an independent country, until the 19th century with it's own currency. It gave up that independence in the 16th century, when it allied with the Northern and Southern Netherlands against the armies of the King of Spain whom at the time was officially the "Count of zeven provincieen der Nederlanden" and ruled over this whole area.
The main reasons for war were religious differences, disputes over taxes and the fact that when some cities wanted to break free, the King's army was very violent to their civilians.
Eventually the Southern Netherlands surrendered and stayed occupied by foreign forces until 1830. Today this is the country Belgium! The Northern Netherlands kept fighting however and won. Then, along with the counties of (Holland, Drente, Groningen, Friesland, Gelderland, Zeeland and Utrecht) became a free Republic, including the occupied regions of Brabant and Limburg.(These two provinces are 'split'in two. Belgium also has two provinces called Limburg and (South) Brabant. We have (North) Brabant.
All these counties (are provinces today, together with some new ones, ) are now called "The Kingdom of the Netherlands."
To say to someone from Limburg, Zeeland or Friesland that he or she is from Holland, is considered a bit of an insult. I am not! They consider themselves to be from the Netherlands (yes yes). They even have their own language. (Fries,Limburghs,Zeeuws)
People from other Provinces (except North and South Holland) will perhaps not consider it a real insult(or frankly don't care about how you call them), but still they are not from Holland.
Holland gave up it's independence a very long time ago, so calling the Netherlands "Holland", is like calling the whole of Great Britain "England." |
Something i must say. Amsterdam is a nice city, but the rest of the Netherlands is totally different!!!! To those people who say: "i've been to the Netherlands(and mean only Amsterdam), i know a lot about the country". My answer: "No you don't know anything!" Amsterdam is nice city to visit, but it is so Not Dutch. Not like the rest of the country anyways. So for those who would like to visit the Netherlands, i encourage you to go outside of Amsterdam, 'cause there is a lot more too explore. |
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| In A Nutshell: | "More than just windmills and Coffeeshops" |
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 Comments for sammie about Netherlands | | | | |
Mikebond Tue Jul 4, 2006 10:08 UTC
Good page about Nederland! I'd like to come to your country but I'd visit the towns rather than Amsterdam. It's true that visiting a capital city never involves knowing a country! | truus_s Wed Feb 5, 2003 18:26 UTC
Page ziet er mooi uit!! GREAT photos!! | jmarkoos Tue Dec 17, 2002 21:00 UTC
very good information about Netherlands | mohammed7026 Fri Nov 29, 2002 21:43 UTC
Exellent page |
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