Skip to main content

Holland is just a step away

By



When life gives you lemons make green tea lemonade. So, when one lives in the midwest why not make the best of it and explore the sites in this area? You don't need a lot of money or even a passport. That brings us to Holland, Michigan a Dutch settlement in America. Obviously the city is very proud of its Dutch heritage, as shown in the klompen picture at the top. Klompen is the name of the Dutch wooden clog dance. There are many dutch settlements in Michigan but what makes Holland so distinctly Dutch are its two festivals: the tulip time festival in the spring and the winter festival.

The tulip festival is held in mid-May and lasts for 8 days. The festival includes tours at the local windmills, tulip farms, local dutch houses, as well as dances, concerts, street scrubing, and a dutch marketplace. One interesting thing about the Dutch costumes that are presented during the festival is that they are from the 8 out of 12 different provinces of the Netherlands.

Here is one interesting comment about the Dutch dancing girls: " A question frequently asked by tourists watching the dancers is whether the girls from Dutch descent commonly have such thick ankles. The answer is, of course, no. In order to walk and dance comfortably, in the wooden shoes, they all wear several pair of heavy socks. In general, the clothing in our festival represents styles of the mid 1800s through the mid 1900s" The province that our family originally came from is Noord-Holland so here are a few costumes that we could traditionally have worn.

The first are workday normal wear and the sunday best for men which aren't so bad...

Workday wear Sunday Best


Voldendam girl Voldendam Boy


Marken Girl Marken Boy

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. DenwildzeeJanuary 6, 2012 at 2:33 PM

    if the links don't work here is the link for the costumes

    http://www.tuliptime.com/dutch-costumes-0

    ReplyDelete
  2. de Blau boerJanuary 6, 2012 at 10:44 PM

    Deventer is in the Overijssel province which actually has not so outlandish looking clothes. Check it out.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

de Vries, Hans de Vries. Almost.

By
In 1967 THE James Bond (Sean Connery) decided to step away from the world of James Bond films. EOS studios thus had to find a replacement. It came down to 5 men. 2 Brits, an American, a Australian, and a Dutchman. John Richardson, Anthony Rogers, Robert Campbell, George Lazenby, and Hans de Vries. None of those names ring a bell? George Lazenby won the part for the 6th Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. A movie that has been lauded both as the worst and one of the best Bond films in the franchise. If you haven't seen it, you should. It was the Bond film that 'Breaks the Fourth Wall', Bond gets married, wears a kilt, and goes skiing. But the reason for this post is instead of this; (Yes, THAT is James Bond) We could of had this. Improvement? Probably not. He looks a wee bit angry. Plus, no one watches OHMSS anyway. So, did de Vries have a movie career after Bond? Ha, no. The only notable movie rolls I can find for him were pre bond. And that was ...
Post a Comment
Read more

General Recommendations for Amsterdam

By
Do not be sucked in by Argentinian or Italian restaurants, they are everywhere instead go to the outskirts of town for some excellent local food. Come in through central station-> if coming with luggage prepare yourself to wheel your bags over rough cobblestones to your hotel. Walk streets before biking them, otherwise you will get hopelessly lost. Rental bikes- find one close to hotel or a spot that you want to see as you walk back to the hotel, scout out prices, check your bike before you leave to see if you have a small map attached on the back, be careful about brightly colored bikes because they mark you as a tourist [which tells the Amsterdamers to take it easy on you when biking but also draws unsavory types], always lock your bike completely Try to get off Damrak (main tourist street)- it's really crowded with luggage wheeling tourists, full of souvenir shops, and lousy restaurants Canal boat tours are worth it especially if your feet are tired from walking ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Voedsel

By
If you enjoy eating delicious food and/or being gastronomically adventurous your entertainment surrounds food.  That being said I will try almost anything once and the Netherlands does not have many foods that really scare me ( cow tongue, squid, chitlins) When we set our feet down in Amsterdam I immediately thought of all the foods I wanted to try.  Some words that I quickly became familiar with were 'gesloten' (closed) and open and the abbreviations for the days of the week The food. Pickled herring-> no I didn't try them.  I know, I know; during the winter they only have the canned variety so you need to wait until May-June to get the years fresh catch called 'hollandse nieuwe' Bitterballen-basically hush puppies.  They can be filled with different things. Frites-normally with frites sauce which is most similar to mayonnaise, but it is a tad lighter with a hint of lemon in my opinion.  The food to eat in Amsterdam, no you can not start a diet whil...
Post a Comment
Read more