Neat, ordered and clean with everything working smoothly and efficiently. The Netherlands consists of strips of green land lying between bodies of water, the canals tending to dominate the landscape. Nary an undulation in the ground’s surface is to be seen, except where bridges cross waterways, the country that we saw on our visit was as flat as a pool table.
Bicycles were the most common form of transport in Amsterdam, with modern trams and trains coming in a close second. The architecture was a dichotomy of very old and very well maintained tall buildings, with a successful marriage of sleek modern structures that somehow avoided the garishness of many new buildings found elsewhere.
Everyone spoke perfect English, but the Dutch signage is often not that hard to interpret anyway.
Whilst doing the usual rounds of museums and art galleries we indulged in a visit to the Van Gogh museum, which included many examples of his friends’ and contemporaries’ works as well. It was a fantastic experience to absorb the roughly daubed textures and true colours that are not obvious in the reproductions contained in books. The real thing is very different and much more emotional, Van Gogh’s torment could be felt in many of his works. We also spent some delightful hours wandering around the Rijksmuseum, and finally saw many of Rembrandt’s original paintings in all their glory.
Despite the freedoms of the red light districts of Amsterdam there were no signs of disorderliness or crime that some might expect. There was a party atmosphere clearly evident but the crowds all behaved properly. Politeness was the order of the day (and night.) Obviously permissiveness can, and does, work well in a civilised environment.
Notice there is no litter. Very cool.
Netherlands is where the Blender Foundation is. A remarkable organisation that provides, for free, Blender3D, a brilliant 3D editing program that lets you create and animate 3D virtual worlds and the creatures to inhabit them. It also works as an excellent video editor. The Blender Foundation also organises free “Open Movies” every year that demonstrate Blender3D’s capabilities and the extraordinary abilities of the artists who create those movies.
Netherlands also hosts many computing parties where people create programs together for fun. Amazing place.
Was there any wilderness? Any forests? I suspect not. That’s sad if it is so. All that ordered civilisation would become quite claustrophobia-inducing after a while, I think.
It is interesting but the Netherlands are mostly land reclaimed from the ocean I think. So no natural wilderness was evident, although there was apparently a ‘woodland’ that we missed. Without having been there I would guess that it is a planted forest like so many others of the UK and Europe. The Netherlands is a very sensible place, people are educated and generally don’t think stoopid stuff like in the US, UK and Australia. Wind power is everywhere and people are very tolerant. The coppers didn’t even carry guns! (in other parts of Europe we have seen the police carry sub-machine guns.) Even the super modern trains tend to run on an honesty system.