Many world-famous painters were Dutch. One of the most famous early artists was Hieronymus Bosch. The heyday of the Republic in the 17th century, the so-called Golden Age, produced great artists such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, Carel Fabritius, Gerard Dou, Paulus Potter, Jacob Izaaksoon van Ruisdael and Jan Steen. During the Golden Age, around 700 painters worked in the Netherlands, completing around 70,000 paintings a year. Famous painters of later eras were Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondrian. M. C. Escher and Otto Heinrich Treumann were well-known graphic artists.
The most famous Dutch rock band Golden Earring had their biggest hit with Radar Love in the 1970s. The classic rock bands Ekseption around Rick van der Linden and Focus as well as Shocking Blue with their hit Venus were also world-famous in the 1970s. Eddie Van Halen and Alex Van Halen, band members of the American hard rock band Van Halen, were also born in the Netherlands.
Anne Frank wrote her world-famous diary between 1942 and 1944 while she and her family were in hiding in Amsterdam to avoid arrest or deportation to an extermination camp.
In motorsport, the motorcycle world championship Grand Prix race track in Assen (Dutch TT), the Formula 1 Grand Prix race track in Zandvoort and the De Bonte Wever ice stadium in Assen with its ice speedway world championship races are known worldwide.
The best known for Holland are frieten or patat, Dutch for French fries, with various sauces, the most famous combination being mayonnaise and peanut sauce (with onions), the patatje oorlog. Other specialties include Goudse kaas (Gouda cheese) and Hollandse Nieuwe; These matjes are young, not yet sexually mature herring. Due to the Netherlands' past as a maritime power, culinary influences from the former colonies came to the country, for example the nasibal or bamibal. These are Nasi Goreng or Bami Goreng in the shape of meatballs.
De Wallen - During our tour of Amsterdam's De Wallen district, we quickly realized that the area is really very special, but it is as much a part of Amsterdam as the canals, the cheese and the incredible number of bicycles.
Giethoorn - Almost car-free, very idyllic, and incredibly romantic - this is the best way to describe the small village of Giethoorn in Holland. A network of canals meanders through the village for around eight kilometres, which is best explored from a boat.
Anne Frank House - Who doesn't know that the world's most famous diary was written by the girl Anne Frank in her hiding place in a secret annex in Amsterdam and which became world famous after her murder.
When trying to get tickets for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (at the time there were 4 - 6 weeks to book in advance), we also came across the so-called Museumsplein, where we noticed the many, mostly unknown national flags who accompanied the path across the green space.
Rembrandt's works were also a destination on our tours through Amsterdam. However, anyone who thinks that the large, well-known works of the important Baroque painter,
If you, like us, actually want to visit the Van Gogh Museum, you should think about the exact date well in advance and book accordingly, because the Van Gogh Museum is one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands, and probably even in the world.
For this day we planned a city stroll along the Amsterdam canals and bridges, which we wanted to start at the Rijksmuseum / Reichsmuseum.
Because of its canals and locks, Amsterdam has not only been known as a place of hydraulic engineering culture for centuries, but thanks to its very liberal politics and the accumulation of great art and artists, it is also a tourist destination, at least as well known for Anne Frank's diary, which has been read millions of times.
We were traveling in Amsterdam for a few days, completing all the tours by bike, but then crossed the canals through Amsterdam in an excursion boat despite heavy rain.
It was and is always fascinating to watch active kite surfers on the beach, like again a few days ago on the ever-long sandy beach of IJmuden on the coast of Amsterdam.
Sure, Holland is a relatively flat country, with large parts of the land area even lying below sea level, that's what you learn in school.
Land sailing on the sandy beaches of the coasts has a long tradition that goes back to around 1600 in Europe, especially in northern Germany and on the Dutch North Sea coast.
It was actually only supposed to be a visit to the café with its own ice cream creations, discovered at the entrance to Oud Zaandijk, but then the conspicuously curved gables with their wooden panelling were so attractive that we extended the tour considerably.
As already reported in a first blog article, the destination of our trip into the weekend was Callandsoog in North Holland, a small, idyllic coastal town on the North Sea, which has become particularly well known for the height and beauty of its sand dunes and its cycle paths.
South American sounds came to our ears while we were setting up our tent at the “De Sport Camping” campsite, so we grabbed our bikes and went exploring as soon as we set up.
We were cycling along the Zaan when we noticed a rather strange building in Zaandam, which at first sight looked like classic Zaanse-Schans houses stacked on top of each other, and in the typical shades of green at that.