Back to Holland!

Since visiting Holland as a 4-year-old child with my parents, I have a love for all things Dutch.  I remember wearing pretty, shiny yellow wooden whose while there. 

In the last article of the September, 1929, issue of National Geographic Magazine, Mr. George Alden Sanford, the author of "A Vacation in Holland," highly recommends traveling abroad.  "If you have never been even for a short time, a quasi-citizen of a strange country, you have interesting experiences coming to you.  Tourists who tear through a country by motor car or on express trains miss many of the interesting sights and especially contact with the people" (p. 363).

The country of Holland, in eastern Europe, has a west coast on the North Sea, sharing its eastern border with Germany.  "Nearly one-half of the country being below sea level, constant vigilance in watching the dikes is necessary" (p. 362).  "On a land area about equal to the combined land areas of Maryland and Delaware (U.S.A. states), Holland supports a population of more than 600 to the square mile" (p. 364).

"Holland is a great agricultural country, is thoroughly irrigated by canals, and has been fertilized by cattle for centuries" (p. 366).  "Haarlem is a fine city and the center of the bulb industry. . .Quantities of crocus, hyacinth, narcissus, and tulip bulbs, running high in money value, are exported annually.  "I remember endless fields of red and also yellow tulips in Holland.  "The tulip is undoubtedly the national flower.  The name was appropriated from the Persian language and means a turban" (p. 375). 

In 1929, Holland was a monarchy.  "On Sundays, in fine weather, Queen Wilhelmina, her consort, Prince Henry, and the Princess Juliana may be seen walking to church like any well-to-do Dutch family" (p. 375).  Holland still has a constitutional monarchy.  The current ruler is King Willem-Alexander.

Among my favorite art objects are small blue-and-white pieces of ceramics that resemble tile from Delft, Holland.  My grandmother owned several genuine Delft tiles she proudly displayed.

Sampler on my dining room wall with ceramic blue-and-white 'wooden' shoes like those in Holland.  Mary, my daughter #5 executed this counted cross-stitch creation many years ago.  It shows a windmill, canal, and countryside.

My treasured little ceramic windmill. It is musical and the blue 'blades' actually turn.

Knicknacks in my National Geographic cabinet: blue-and-white windmill (top, left) and seashells, (lower, left): bunny rabbit, vase, and pig.

"The costumes of rural Holland are indeed unique.  Women wear six or more skirts, lest the form be immodestly displayed, and a bright-colored waist with elbow sleeves, for strong, red arms are admired by men.  The climax is a lace cap, the shape of which distinguishes the province in which the wearer lives" (p. 378).  It is too much of me to expect that all native costumes would be worn everywhere in 2013.  I judge the world to be too generic now!

At last, I found out the social place of my beloved wooden shoes: "Children and the poor wear klompen - wooden shoes" (p. 378).  I still appreciate their shape and feel.

Mr. Sanford had a most pleasant vacation: "So, good-bye Holland, with your quaint homes and ways, with your excellent and honest people, with your troops of happy children klomping along the streets, and with all your motoring and boatering" (p. 378).  Someday, I also would like to re-visit Holland!