Without further ado- here are some cool things you may not have known about The Netherlands:
- There is a secured village in the Netherlands specifically for people with dementia, where they can act out a normal life while being monitored and assisted by caretakers in disguise.
- The Netherlands closed eight prisons due to lack of criminals.
- The Netherlands voted “Swaffelen” as their word of the year in 2008. It means to repeatedly smack one’s p*nis against someone or something.
- The IKEA HQ in Delft, Netherlands had to stop offering their €1 breakfast during the weekends because the highways couldn’t handle the traffic it attracted.
- Holland is only a province within the Netherlands, not another name for the country.
- There is an American military cemetery in Margraten, Netherlands. On Memorial Day each year, every last grave is “adopted” by a Dutch family that lays flowers over the site.
- Scientists in the Netherlands are developing an ocean cleaning system which uses the ocean’s currents and a barrier to remove plastic waste. A 100 km long system will be deployed in 2020 to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- In the Netherlands, citizens with disabilities receive public money to pay for sexual services up to 12 times a year.
- A supermarket chain in the Netherlands has a policy that if all queues have 4 people in them and not all checkout lanes are open yet, then you get your groceries for free.
- For one day in 1940 a section of a hospital in Ottawa, Canada became international territory so a Dutch Princess could be born a full Dutch citizen (a requirement to be a Dutch Princess). Every year the Netherlands sends Canada a gift of tulips to show their gratitude.
- The crown princess of the Netherlands goes to a public school.
- In the Netherlands, there is an entire neighborhood with names out of the Tolkien stories.
- The Netherlands is the only country in the world where it is compulsory for everyone to have private health insurance. Premiums are not based on age or health status, but on income & are on average €100 per month.
- The Netherlands built “Smart Highways” which glow in the dark lane markings – symbols that illuminate the road when adverse conditions appear.
- Netherlands is the 2nd largest exporter of agricultural goods behind the USA, with exports earning $79 billion in 2013. They export two-thirds of the world’s fresh-cut plants, flowers, and flower bulbs.
- One of the longest wars in history, between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly, lasted from 1651 to 1986. There were no casualties.
- Netherlands and France share a land border. It’s in the Caribbean on Saint Martin – the smallest inhabited island divided between two countries.
- The Netherlands has a defense system where they can turn the provinces of North and South Holland into an island by flooding any potential crossings into the province.
- Assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands.
- The village of Giethoorn in the Netherlands has no roads. People get around on foot or via one of the village’s many canals.
- An orangutan named Sibu at a zoo in Apeldoorn, Netherlands rejected all attempts made for him to mate with female orangutans. He only exhibited sexual interest in his human female caretakers with a particular penchant for the blonde ones with tattoos
- The Netherlands is the third-largest direct foreign investor in the United States.
- Despite being legal, the rate of Cannabis use by the general population in the Netherlands is lower than the rate in the United States.
- Johanna Westerdijk was the first female professor in the Netherlands. She told her school teacher she would make enough to pay someone to do her chores, was a noted party animal, and started a tradition of dressing geese in costumes and parading them around at university events.
- The largest mountain in the Netherlands is located in the Caribbean.
- In some countries, in the 70s, including the Netherlands, cassette data storage was so popular that some radio stations would broadcast computer programs that listeners could record onto cassette and then load into their computer.
- In 2009, the UK Government joined the Netherlands and other European nations in encouraging teens to masturbate at least daily. An orgasm was defined as a right in its health pamphlet.
- The Netherlands is constructing special bridges for wildlife in order to connect habitats and keep animals from being hit by cars.
- There’s a re-migration law/act in the Netherlands that pays qualifying immigrants free flight tickets, all moving expenses and 600 euro per month until the day they die if they move back to their country of origin.
- The Netherlands and the U.K. did not know they were at war with each other for 334 years.
- In 2012 a proposal was made in the Netherlands to create legal, virtual child p*rnography to help satisfy pedophiles’ needs and hopefully make them less likely to act out their fantasies.
- The Netherlands have the highest amount of tornadoes of any European country, followed by the UK.
- The USSR refused to host the 1980 Summer Paralympics after the Moscow Summer Olympics. An official claimed “there are no invalids in the USSR”; the games were held in The Netherlands instead.
- Shrooms are banned in The Netherlands, but the truffles that come from the same plant and produce the same hallucinogenic effect are fully legal
For dinner we had staampot its a mashed potato and kale dish with sausage. We also had gouda and sliced apples with a delicious brown bread. For dessert we had a dutch butter cake. I loved all the cool things I learned about the Netherlands!!
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| Some goodies we found from the Netherlands |
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| The licorice wasn't from The Netherlands but apparently they love it over there so we had to add it to our feast. |
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| gouda, apples and sausage |
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| the ingredients for the staampot: kale, leeks, potatoes, onion and sausage |
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| This is the butter cake prior to going into the oven. I didn't take a picture of it once it was done, but it was very good. |
