Sharon

1) &quot;The Potato Eaters&quot; Van Gogh Museum<BR>This work might not be every body's favorite Van Gogh (too somber Dutch) but I have never seen anything so beautiful. I must have stood there for five minutes just gawking. I hope the ameboe who stole those other paintings are disembowelled.<BR><BR>2) Wall Clock - Rijksmuseum<BR>While I was strolling through the antiques section I saw this lovely old wall clock. The plaque on the wall beside it said it was made about 1750. It was ticking. I looked at its face - ten after eleven - and then I looked at the high tech digital watch on my wrist, which also said ten after eleven. &quot;Well, I'll be damned,&quot; I thought.<BR><BR>3) That nice police lady in Centraal Station who was so patient with a stoned, lost tourist.<BR><BR>4) The fossils in the geological museum were most interesting. I gawked at a 350 million year old sea shell fossil while outside a rooster in the Artis crowed his head off. There's a lesson there somewhere.<BR><BR>5) Some tourists like beaches, others like supermarkets, I like zoos. The aquarium in the Artis has a fish in it as big as I am.<BR><BR>6) &quot;Staalmeesters&quot; - the Rijksmuseum - is now my favorite Rembrandt. I sat in front of it for ten minutes because I was sure at any moment the staalmeester who's looking out over his shoulder is going to wave his hand and say &quot;dag.&quot; He looks that real.<BR><BR>7) Anne Frank's House - Yes, a lot of tourists go here. But I read the Diary before I left, and as I went through I reminded myself that eight people lived here, for over two years, and their lives depended on never looking out the window, making a sound above a whisper, and often doing without running water. Any problems I may have had in life are laughable by comparison.<BR><BR>8) Cafes - cafes are swell, especially when the building they're in is two or three hundred years old.<BR><BR>9) New food - I'm never much of a gourmand at home, but I had to try the sea bass with spinach at the Bon Ton, and was it ever good. A man I met there and I had to fight nausea at the idea of eating at a McDonalds, which I won't even do at home.<BR><BR>10) The capital of the only nation on earth that can really call itself a democracy, and which respects the rights of adults to do what they want as long as they're not hurting anyone.<BR><BR>I can't wait to go back and I'm planning another trip for April.

Tony Hughes

Interesting, if rather naive.

Peter

<BR><BR>Tony, that was not interesting, and rather patronising. I thought Sharon's post was very refreshing and rather different.

jjj

The Netherlands is not a democracy: it is a Constitutional Monarchy. The official name is: Koningrijk der Nederlanden (Kingdom of the Netherlands). Equating a democracy with a constitutional monarchy is incorrect. Furthermore, just because a country is labelled a &quot;democracy&quot; does not mean it is free. Good examples would be The Republic of Iraq and the People's Republic of China and lest anyone forget, The Republic of Athens.

Nutella

If I may...<BR><BR>11) A guy named Ed ; )

selena

I like it because it is so civilized! We could learn alot from this government...

dkdkd

Civilized? Do you have Dutch family? Are you Dutch? Do you know what civilized is? Civilized is being able to sit in the waiting room on the trainplatform that says &quot;No Smoking&quot; and not being forced to leave because 1) there is trash and filth and the chairs are all scarred with cigarette butts and 2) some random guy is lighting up a joint .... and no one dare say anything for fear of being attacked. That is what happened to me last week in Amsterdam at the Slotervaart station. As for the government, you believe Prime Minister Kok and his Purple coalition government were good things for Holland? You are out of your mind. You don't know the first thing about what living in overregulated Holland is really like.

Danna

I share Sharon's love of Amsterdam. I choose the lady we met in the bank who advised that we take a nightime canal tour, and we saw her later and she said hello as if we were friends. The cat we saw sauntering about our restaurant. The hotel staff who remembered us and helped us figure out the trams... we became quite efficient. Then again there is that amazing side trip to Keukenhoff, and our fellow travelers on the bus. It's a grand place.

Sharon

jjj - yes, you're right, it's a constitutional monarchy. I meant &quot;democracy&quot; in the sense that the citizens vote for their representatives. Why split hairs?<BR><BR>dkdkd - I agree with Selena - it is more civilized. I don't know what Holland you went to if you found it overregulated. Personally, I found much more freedom there than here in Canada. Why do you go to other countries just to focus on the bad?

Sjoerd

Well, as a Dutchman I am probably entitled to an opinion on this as well. <BR>The Netherlands is not paradise. Yes, the democracy functions relatively well, and we have more freedoms (such as euthanasia, same-sex marriages, freedom to use soft drugs) than most other countries, which is good. However, there are problems in this country as well, such as the increasing petty crime, lack of cleanliness in the big cities, abuse of social security programs, etc. <BR>Thanks for your post, Sharon, and I am happy that you like my home town, but paradise, unfortunately, doesn't exist. But I agree that we, and the Scandinavian countries, and Canada, are probably closest to paradise in this world.

iloveholland

1-10 Homegrown Coffee shop, need I say more??????????????????

frank

I like the way the Dutch confront their problems instead of sweeping them under the carpet.So the casinos are state run (here in the UK even the state lottery is run by a shady private company), soft drugs &amp; prostitution are in the open instead of being handed to the crims.Nothing naive about that, they take a realist's view.<BR>Also I love the potato eaters.<BR>Cat lovers - visit the cat museum!

xxx

I think lots of places are heaven when you're on vacation, and a bit &quot;south of heaven&quot; when you live there.

Olderundwiser

Yes, Amsterdam could be much better, much cleaner. Less graffiti-covered, less petty theft, more responsible for protecting its past and building for its future. It's a sad place in many ways, compared with the way I remember it years back. It is as if it has somehow misplaced its soul. Liberty has turned to license in the process.

jjj

Olderundwiser, you are so right. The Amsterdam I grew up in is no longer there. I remember when the Kalverstraat was beautiful and very exclusive with the finest shops and merchandise. Since the mid-70's, it is full of cheap-end, slovenly stores and merchandise. Crime is going up and up, vandalism, drugs everywhere, etc. I don't go to Amsterdam so I can rag on the country; I go to visit family. And what I realize is my homeland is not the one in which I grew up. Americans and other tourists go and see all these &quot;laid back&quot; attitudes but they do not understand what a socialist country Holland is. The government regulates everything, from electricity prices to phones to who is by law on an emergency contact list at the hospital and who is not. I challenge anyone to counter my claims because I have all the proof about what Holland has become. And I am saddened my country is not what it used to be -- it has gone downhill very very fast. Yet most Dutchmen of the younger generations do not see this or notice or care. There is much more freedom in America and the government is still much less present in everyone's life than in Holland that's for sure. I'm glad people go and visit Holland and have a great time. But all that glitters is not gold and if they lived there for a greater amount of time, they would know what I'm talking about. Lastly, I differentiated between a constitutional monarchy and a democracy because other posters use democracy with everything. And then they say &quot;why split hairs&quot;? Well, if you're going to use a term, then use it in the correct context. That was my point. Ergo, it is not the Democracy of the Netherlands but Kingdom of the Netherlands. Case closed.

Tracy

Wow, superb thread. <BR><BR>I personally love wandering 'round the Jordaan - *and* I loved it when my Dutch friends and I were trying to get a beer on a cafe terrace &amp; were treated to some special A'dam service (speaking in Dutch, asking for drinks that never came. We left &amp; found another terrace). So heartening to see that the A'dam attitude extends to fellow countrypeople &amp; not just us tourists !<BR><BR>With any luck January's NL elections will be a turning point. Vrolijk Kerstfeest &amp; Gelukkig Nieuwyaar allemaal!<BR>=)

Sjoerd

jjj: first of all the correct spelling of the country is Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.<BR>Secondly, the Netherlands is not a &quot;socialist&quot; country as you claim it is. Over the last 3 years, the Netherlands has been in the top 5 of countries with the free-est economies and &quot;best country to invest&quot; according to The Economist, a conservative British magazine. <BR>Thirdly, I live in Amsterdam and have never used drugs and to claim that &quot;drugs are everywhere&quot; is total nonsense. Most of the visitors to the coffeeshops are foreign tourists! <BR>Fourthly, just like New York is not representative for all of the US, Amsterdam is not representative for all of the Netherlands. <BR>New York and Amsterdam are big cities with big city problems. <BR>It is a pity so few foreign tourists ever go to Schiermonnikoog, or Bourtange, or Zierikzee, or the Posbank near Arnhem, or to the Holterberg or Denekamp. No drugs, everything is very clean, and the locals can't be friendlier.

jjj

Hey Sjoerd, your defense of Holland's not being socialist is very interesting. With all of the social welfare programs, the overregulation of all aspects of life in Holland from the cradle to the grave (things tourists do NOT see) and the interesting fact more than half of all Dutch policemen don't even know how to fire a gun show what you are too ignorant to see anymore. You are not free or safe in Holland: you aren't permitted by law to defend yourself with a gun against a criminal since the policemen can't even defend you. Admittedly, the taxes you pay are far beyond reasonable! I'd be interested to find out how much you pay monthly for the Ziekenfonds in addition to what you are required to pay the government for your healthcare (provided you can even get a bed in any of the hospitals when you do require medical attention. Rest assured there aren't enough hospital beds to get around and you'll be placed on a waiting list). It's a shame you can't even see how much the system over there has brainwashed you. Considering THE ECONOMIST's long history of radical left-wing, anti-American bias, its view Holland is such a wonderful place to invest further proves the contrary. Why does Holland invest so much here and not in Europe? Because Dutch businesses make much more here than they could ever hope for by investing in Europe. And last but not least, since you were so rude to make a snide comment about my typo, I'll just give you an English grammar lesson. If you're mentioning a publication, you have to either capitalize the publication or underline it. Have a blessed day in your lovely, overregulated Dutch system. Thank God I now live in America. Doei!

Sjoerd

jjj: I am glad that you are happy in the USA. To each his own. <BR>But please let us in the Netherlands run our own country the way we want to do it. Very few people here complain about high taxes. Wondering why? Because we are getting so much in return. If we wanted an economic/social/political system like the USA we would have voted for political parties that are favouring lower taxes, less social security, etc. We didn't. <BR>Anyway, this is not a political board so I'll leave it at this. It is the diversity that makes this world so interesting. Try to learn from other countries instead of, after a quick glance, claim that they are &quot;socialists&quot;. (not that there is anything wrong with being socialist!)

jjj

But you said in your previous post that Holland was not a socialist country. You are inconsistent. And the reason you can't vote for less taxes is because not one political party in Holland wants lower taxes in the first place so how can the Dutch complain? They don't have that freedom because there is no choice for them. And if you offer alternatives, like Pim Fortuyn did, you end up getting shot! (oh but wait a minute, I thought there was gun control in Holland so how did the man get a gun?) It's all about their keeping power over YOU and telling YOU what to do with YOUR own money. P.S. by the way, our social security system works just fine -- the European press doesn't understand it so they choose to berate it.