Dutch Theme
 Flag of The Netherlands | |
| Capital (and largest city) | Amsterdam |
|---|---|
| Official Language | Dutch |
| Independence Declared | July 26, 1581 |
| Independence Recognized | January 30, 1648 |
| Land Area | 41,526 km2 (135th) 16,033 mi2 |
| Water Area | 18.41% |
| Population (2008) | 16,492,230 (61th) |
The Netherlands, the land of tulips, windmills, and wooden shoes. A land where prostitution is legal, and you might be surprised if you try walking into a ‘coffee shop’ and discover the menu of marijuana products. (If you just want coffee, go into a cafe, not a ‘coffee’ shop.)
The Netherlands is often called Holland, but strictly speaking, Holland is made up of only two largest and most prominent provinces within the country (called, appropriately enough, North Holland and South Holland). To call the entire country Holland would be like akin to someone calling the entire United States of America simply Carolina or Dakota.
The world’s first asset-inflation bubble took place in The Netherlands with the humble little tulip in February of 1637. During the tulip mania, tulip contracts sold for more than 10 times an average man’s salary, crashing spectacularly and causing a severe economic downturn. Fortunately, such madness would never occur in this day and age. ;o)
This theme features several subjects that tourists often think of when they think of The Netherlands. Clogs show up in the title bar, wooden shoes that Dutch people once wore regularly. In modern times, you won’t typically see the Dutch walking around in clogs, but it’s still a photogenic subject for tourists.
The cheese in the upper-right corner of the page represents the popularity of cheeses in The Netherlands. It’s like the Wisconsin of the Old World. You’ll find a bewildering number of cheeses, cheese shops, and piles and piles of cheese.
The bottom of the pages in this theme feature a windmill against a background of tulips. There used to be as many as 10,000 windmills that dotted the Dutch landscape. They were used to pump water—much of The Netherlands is reclaimed land from the sea—a service that is now performed with modern pumping stations. Nearly a thousand windmills have been preserved, however, and one of the most impressive array of 19 of them can be found near the village of Kinderdijk. One is even open for the public to go inside and tour.
I made a Dutch theme primarily because I’d recently visited the Netherlands and thought it would be easy and fun to do. What date to use, though? So many intriguing ideas to choose from!
I was tempted by April 17, 1986. A 335-year “state of war” that had existed between the Netherlands and the Scilly Isles came to an end on this date when Dutch ambassador Jonkheer Huydecoper flew to the Scilly Isles to deliver a proclamation terminating the war that had started in 1651. Though hostilities had ceased three centuries earlier, a standing joke in the islands was that no one had bothered to declare an end to the war.
But no, I settled on The Queen’s Birthday, April 30th, a public holiday in celebration of the birthday of former Queen Juliana in 1909, the accession of current monarch Beatrix (1980) and the Dutch National Day. The whole country parties as young and old participate in festivities such as markets, theater, music and games.
Then the queen abdicated the throne in 2013 allowing her son to become King Willem-Alexander, so in 2014 the date was changed to the King’s Birthday, which is April 27th.
Sounds like a good cause for a theme to me!
Letterboxing Cities
Here are all of the cities in the Netherlands we’ve hit with letterboxes!