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.
The rain in the Netherlands is like a tragic-comic play, now it’s raining lightly like a newly installed shower, now the sun is shining, now it’s pouring rain with the buckets, now we’re overloaded with rainbows. You leave home whistling under the optimistic blue sky and end up halfway running desperately to your car under the threat of a sudden anthracite horizon. You look dazed and wonder where in the name of God those angry clouds came from. Over time, I learned that an umbrella in my purse is a must-have accessory.
I sincerely admire the Dutch. Regardless of the amount of rain, they ride without worries on their bikes, with one hand on the handlebars and the umbrella in the other. Easy peasy to ride a bike in the rain according to the Dutch. Or, as the Dutch say: “Riding a bike in the rain is like putting two fingers in your nose” (fietsen in de regen met twee vingers in de neus). It’s really a Dutch saying that doesn’t work for me. But again, I’m not Dutch.
I think the rain perfectly reflects the Dutch sensibility of genoeg – freely translated by me as “it’s enough, no more nonsense”. Moderation matters. About as much as it matters how many cookies you take out of the box when you visit a Dutch neighbor for coffee. She offers you coffee, opens the box of biscuits/cookies, you take one and by the time you put it in your mouth, the box is already back in the cupboard. Bye-bye biscuits, welcome moderation!
They say that it rains so much here, because the Orange House (the Dutch royal house) has arranged it with the universe so that the Dutch people have something to talk about! 🙂 The Dutch climate is famous for changing rapidly, often featuring all four seasons in one day! But good news, the rain in the Netherlands prepare you for winter hibernation regardless of the season or, at your choice, offers you the possibility to try to cook a million stamppot varieties. Talking about the weather is probably the main topic of conversation in this wonderful country. Just watch how many words they have only for a rain:
- Buien – the rain has just stopped and you run to Albert Hein to buy bread, happy that the sun is finally shining again very shy. You didn’t even make it to the corner and guess what … it’s raining again. Congratulations, you just meet Buien!
- Stortbuien – Buien’s older sister. Stortbuien is like someone is up there watering people with a giant sprinkler that just had that thing with holes broken.
- Mizeren – it’s the kind of endless rain, sad and wet, that makes you call your most psychological trained friend to tell her all the reasons why “life sucks”. Mizeren really sounds like miserable.
- Hozen – just hide or seek another country with decent sun, when it’s hozen, it’s raining cats and dogs (het regent pijpenstelen)!
- Plenzen – also a sort of hozen. Again, there are other countries that really have sun 🙂
- Stormen – hide under your bed! Nature has unleashed, threatening with its dark clouds, code red with the possibility to say goodbye to your roof, the sky thunder and lightning, postpones all plans to get out of the house and take a deep breath. Lekker weertje, he ? (Awesome weather, isn’t it?) 🙂
Well, do not despair, the Netherlands has plenty of beautiful place you can still visit in the rain 🙂 Come on, take your umbrella and good luck!