Long before the Netherlands was synonym with tulips, windmills, cheese markets, wooden shoes, canals of Amsterdam, masterpieces of Old Masters, Delft Blue earthenware, innovative water-management, millions of bicycles, and happy children, the Dutch were seafarers, explorers, and conquerors. This small country it’s packed with world-famous discoveries and inventions. Let’s see! Read more
During my basic education years, I learned a few things about what will later become my adopted country, The Netherlands: tulips come from here (let’s face it, we all know in the meanwhile that the tulip comes from Turkey), Rotterdam is the biggest port in Europe (from 1964 until 2004 it was the busiest port in the world even), the Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam named after the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, considered to have been one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance, Rembrandt and Van Gogh (the second had become over the years my favorite painter), and PSV Eindhoven, Ruud Gulith with his crazy hair and Marco van Basten (my brother was a big fan). Read more
When Etienne Gustave Frédéric, Baron van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar (1860–1934), married Baroness Hélène de Rothschild, of the Rothschild family, he had not yet inherited the De Haar Castle. This marriage was a blessing for the castle, although it will still take five years before the castle benefits from the Rothschild family’s fortune. The Baroness fell in love with the castle and decided to restore it into a modern version. She contracted the famous architect Pierre Cuypers (who was the architect of other two famous buildings: Amsterdam Central Station and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam). Read more
Vintage stores have something special. At least for me. I always imagine a story behind each product. If you are in Dordrecht, be sure to visit Bluebirds in the Backyard. It’s not just a simple vintage shop, it’s a fairytale place inside a magnificent 18th century building (Huis Roodenburch), which also has a cafe / restaurant where you can relax with a friend for a coffee or lunch (they have biological products). You can take your child with you, there is a very nice playground. You can rent a room for events and recently they opened the garden, so you can enjoy a cappuccino outdoors. Bluebirds in the Backyard is definitely on the list of hotspots in Dordrecht.
It’s summer. I know, social media is overloaded with pictures from the beach, swimsuits are THE posts. People are checking-in on Facebook from Mamaia, from Greece, from Vadu, where is Vama this year, I haven’t seen many pictures from Vama in this begining of the summer. On the other hand … I didn’t even bother taking my sandals out of the boxes. Look, right now, the weather app shows that it will rain tomorrow and as a bonus, all the weekend. Of course, things may change from an hour to another. The weather in the Netherlands is more unpredictable than any woman since Eve.