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    • Bread – Dutch Waldkorn Bread
    • Croquette | Kroket and Bitterbal
    • Drop | Liquorice| Dutch candy
    • Dutch Fries | Patat
    • Dutch New Herring is an irresistible National Delight
    • Erwtensoep | Split Pea Soup
    • Oliebollen on New Year’s Eve
    • Oysters, a fresh raw salty delicacy from Zeeland, Holland
    • Syrup Waffles | Stroop waffels
    • Poffertjes | Dutch mini pancakes
    • Speculaas filled with almond past is a delicious timeless Dutch treat
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    • Carnival
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    • New Year’s Dive
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      • Commemorate the end of the Holocaust
      • Tribute to a Dutch resistance woman | Truus van Lier
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You are at:Home»Tidbits»The Dutch Culture: Nice things, crazy stuff about the Netherlands
Keukenhof - photo MSH
Colorful bouquet daffodils and hyacinth - photo MSH

The Dutch Culture: Nice things, crazy stuff about the Netherlands

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By Joop on 6 April 2020 Tidbits

It’s all about Holland, Dutch, and the Netherlands

Foreigners think a lot to decipher the name of that little country in the north of Europe. What is in a name? Call it Holland or the Netherlands and what do they mean by “Dutch”? Well, we like to explain some things about our habits and the Dutch culture. The Dutch also call their own country the Netherlands a cold frog country. We say “een koud kikkerlandje”. Can you pronounce this?

➔ Dutch Facts➔ Dutch Food and Drinks➔ Dutch Non-Food
➔ Dutch Football ➔ Dutch Bicycles➔ Sayings and expressions

The Dutch Culture: Dutch Facts

  • Most foreigners refer to “Holland” when they mean the “Netherlands”. 
    The Netherlands is a Kingdom, consisting of 12 provinces including the provinces of North and South Holland.
  • The official language is Dutch.
  • The capital and largest city is Amsterdam
  • The democratically elected government settles in the city of Den Haag | The Hague
  • On 17 October 2022, there lived 17779511 people in the Netherlands.
  • The Netherlands is a liberal country with legalized abortion, prostitution, euthanasia and it maintains a progressive drug policy.
  • It was the first country in the world that legalized “same-sex marriage” in 2001.
  • The Dutch are the tallest people in the world. The average height for men is 184cm and for women 170cm.
  • Due to the shortage of grave space, graves are rented (for 10, 15, or 20 years) and cannot be purchased.
  • 86% of the Dutch speak English as a second language.
  • The Netherlands is partly European and partly Caribbean. The Netherlands consists of 4 countries: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten, and 3 special municipalities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.
  • The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany, Belgium, and the North Sea.
  • The Caribbean part of the Kingdom consists of the countries Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten and the 3 special municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.
  • The islands with autonomous rights are Aruba, St. Maarten, and Curacao.
  •  The color of the Dutch flag is red, white, and blue. Orange is the official color of the Royal House of Orange.
  • The Dutch soccer team preferably plays in Orange.

Dutch Food and Drinks are part of the Dutch culture

  • The Dutch people drink a lot of coffee. They drink an average of 140 liters a year, this is 3.2 cups a day!
  • They also have the lowest incidence of lactose intolerance in the world, only 1%.
  • Drop is a black Dutch candy made of Arabic gum and Salmiak. Dutch people adore it and eat many kilos of it. Most foreigners think it tastes disgusting.
The Dutch Culture
Droop
The Dutch Culture 
Drioo
  • The Netherlands is the world’s second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products, after the US! They are also the largest exporter of cheese in the world.
  • A cheese knife, a ‘kaasschaaf’ is used to cut very thin slices of cheese and is a Dutch invention.
  • The Dutch love to eat chopped fried potatoes with mayonnaise, they call it a “Frietje ” or ” Patatje “.
    You can buy a Frietje or Patatje in a pointed paper bag.

Dutch Non-Food

  • Coffee shops. You don’t buy your cappuccino in a coffee shop. They don’t sell coffee. In a coffee shop, you can buy a large variety of stimulating products like weed and hash for reasonable prices. Coffee shops are very popular among young tourists.
The Dutch Culture
Cannabis, Weed and Hash- coffee shop
Cannabis, Weed and Hash- Coffeeshop
The Dutch Culture Coffee shop, Cannabis, Weed and Hash
Coffeeshop, cannabis, weed and hash
  •  The world-famous tulips and tulip fields of the Netherlands do not originate from our country. The first tulip bulbs were imported from Turkey.
  • Wooded shoes “Klompen” have been popular in the Netherlands for about 700 years as industrial footwear worn by farmers, fishermen, factory workers, and artisans to protect their feet from injury and keep them dry. Nowadays the Dutch no longer wear wooden shoes or clogs.

The Dutch Culture: Dutch football |soccer

The Dutch call it “voetbal” and football is very popular among men and women.

  • The Dutch football team, male and female, plays, if possible, always in the national color Orange.
  • The best male Dutch football players of all time are Johan Kruijf, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Willem van Hanegem, Johan Neeskens, Dennis Bergkamp, Robin van Persie, and Arjan Robben.
  • The best male Dutch football players at this moment are Frenkie de Jong, Virgil van Dijk, Memphis Depay, and Matthijs de Ligt.
  • Famous male coaches are Louie van Gaal (current national coach), Guus Hiddink, Dick Advocaat, Ronald Koeman, and Johan Kruijf.
  • The best female Dutch football player of the moment are Vivianne Miedema, Lieke Martens, Anouk Dekker and Sari van Veenendaal.
  • Famous female coach is Sarina Wiegman. Unfortunately, Sarina Wiegman is no longer the coach of the Dutch women’s football team.

Dutch Bicycles

Dutch people love to ride a bike, they ride a bicycle for a lifetime. You can almost say that the Dutch are born on a bicycle, or cycling is poured with a spoon. As soon as a child can walk they start riding on a little children’s balance bike. Once they learned to balance the child is given a bigger bike with side wheels. Once they know how to balance the side wheels are taken off and the biking life starts.

The Dutch Culture
Bicycles
Cycling routes
  • The Netherlands is a cycling country.
  • In 2022 there will be 23 million bicycles in the Netherlands.
  • The number of electric bicycles is more than 3 million, this number is growing by the day.
  • The maximum speed of an electric bicycle is 25 km.
  • The Netherlands has the highest bicycle density in the world.
  • In Holland lies 17.000 mileage bicycle paths, most of them have the special bicycle path color dark red.
  • There is 4.500 mileage of national cycling routes.
  • The Netherlands is a cycling nation per definition.
Bike along in the city - photo MSH
The Dutch Culture – City bike
bicycle stand - Parking
Bicycle parking – bicycle stand – photo MSH
Recumbent bike - photo MSH
Racing with a special bike – Recumbent bike – photo MSH

Racing bikes are very popular. A lot of people, men, and women ride in their free time racing bike tours. In the Netherlands ride a lot of different types of bicycles like mountain bikes, city bikes, and electric bikes. There are for example recumbent bikes. Did you ever hear about this kind of bike? it’s a bike that you lie on instead of sitting on.

The Dutch Culture: Dutch sayings and expressions

Like every other country, the Netherlands has a lot of sayings and expressions. Some of them are new and often used. A lot of the sayings are historical but not forgotten. But anyway there are way too many sayings and expressions to name them all.  Some expressions are nice to know but only if you use them in a good way.

For example, what would you say if you feel that they are making a fool out of you?
In Dutch, you would say: Neem je me in the maling? This would best be translated as: Are you kidding me? Are you trying to fool me?

Some old sayings and expressions are for example:

  • Dutch: Een kind kan de was doen.
    Literally translated: A child can do the laundry.
    You could say it is so easy to do that even a child can do it, it’s childishly simple.
  • Dutch: Een ongeluk zit in een klein hoekje
    Literally translated: An accident sits in a small corner.
    You could say accidents can literally and figuratively be just around the corner.
  • Dutch: Laat je niet bij de neus nemen
    Literally translated: Don’t get caught by the nose
    You could say: Don’t be fooled
  • Dutch: Honger als een paard
    Literally translated: Hunger like a horse
    You could say: Having a ferocious appetite.
  • Dutch: Een heilig boontje zijn
    Literally translated: Being a little holy bean
    You could say: Are you hypocritical? are you really a saint?

Some of the new sayings are quite funny:

What are you saying?
What are you saying?
  • Dutch: je bent een mierenneuker
    Literally translated: You’re an ant fucker
    Meaning: You are overly precise
  • Dutch: Je hebt kippenvel
    Literally translated: you have chicken skin
    Meaning: Getting goosebumps
  • Dutch`; Nu komt de aap uit de mouw
    Literally translated: Now the monkey comes out of the sleeves
    Meaning: Finally the truth comes out
  • Dutch: De hond in de pot vinden
    Literally translated: to find the dog in the pot
    Meaning: You’re too late, dinner has finished, and there’s nothing left
  • Dutch: Doe maar normaal dan doe je gek genoeg
    Literally translated: Act normal then you act crazy enough
  • Dutch: Met je verkeerde been uit bed komen
    Literally translated: get out of bed on the wrong leg
    Meaning: starting your day grumpy
  • Dutch: Alles kits achter de rits
    Literally translated: Everything kits behind the zipper
    Meaning: Everything is okay

The Dutch Culture: Important Dutch Days

➔ Rokjesdag, The first sunny day in spring when women feel an urgent need to wear a skirt and bare legs.
➔ Koningsdag, Kingsday. The day all Dutch celebrate the birthday of King Willem Alexander.

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Hello, my name is Joop and I am the creator/designer of this blog. Always looking for new adventures. I travelled the World and would like to travel some more. Well, that's who I am in a nutshell. Together with some friends and family we like to show the Netherlands to the World. I hope you will enjoy our blog and persuade you to visit our lovely country. Love to see you soon in Holland.

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