All Things Holland

Beer-Bavaria and Heineken (from the south) are common, but Northern Dutch beer is the bees knees.  Try to find some old bars they will show you some smaller breweries which make some great beers like for instance Texels brewery which makes the best beer on earth called Skuumkoppe. {try it at Moe's- Prins Hendrikkade 142sous} The beer is dang good in Amsterdam.   Hot chocolate- eh, not the best, I prefer the rich melted chocolate and milk hot chocolate I got in Switzerland, but hey if you need something to warm you up it's up to you.   Coffee- espresso, but once again sometimes you can ask for milk and get a cheap cappuccino (depending on the establishment) Genever- a hard liquor, also called Dutch gin.  It is a light whiskey. Fresh orange juice- you can find these machines around Europe now but I love them.  You watch the oranges getting squished, lots of pulp but super fresh.   At Moe's

Depending on where you are from, people make automatic assumptions about you. I've been thinking about this and it is true with countries as well, maybe more so. So are unfounded, most are out of date but they are there non the less. Canada = maple syrup, hockey, "ay?" Britain = bad teeth, drive on the wrong side of the road, BBC, Queen France = arrogant, "french girls", fancy food Russia = vodka, cold, supermodels, communism USA = "everyone should speak english", fast food, sports Germany = Hitler, blonde haired blue eyed Why am I doing this article? Here is the tag line. Netherlands = accepting (look the other way), tulips, wooden shoes, windmills, color orange, (recently) soccer. Here are a few facts about the Netherlands. 1) You already know they are known form their Beer. Heineken and Amstel. 2) Cheese. A county full of cows has good cheese. They are known for Gouda cheese. The cheese is named after the region it was made in, hence Gouda. 3) Flowe...

So posting something every weekday is a little harder than I thought. I think I'm just going to shoot for at least 2 a week. Sorry folks. Today I thought it would be neat to read about some companies that were founded in the Netherlands. Some you already know and others that may make you say, "really?" I picked just the ones that we here in America would recognize. First off the beer companies. Just 2 BIG ones. Amstel Brewery - 1870 in Amsterdam. Bought by the next company in 1968. Heineken International - 1864 in Amsterdam. As of 2007 they own 119 breweries in 65 countries. They claim their recipe hasn't changed in 150 years and Heineken is the worlds 3rd largest brewer. Now others. Endemol - 1994 merger of television companies. They have produced shows like Fear Factor and Wipeout based in the Netherlands. ING Group - Financial institution full name is Internationale Nederlanden Groep (International Netherlands Group). You remember the commercials. ING with the ora...