Welcome to Netherlands

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between Netherlands and Holland? Well…the name of the country is Netherlands. There are 12 provinces in the country and two of them are North Holland and South Holland. In the early 19th century, those two provinces provided the bulk of the country’s economy and wealth, so people started referring to the country as Holland, but the correct name is Netherlands. I know you will be able to sleep much better tonight now that you know this.

Our day started early, 5am to catch our cab for the 5-minute ride to the airport. In early years we would have just walked to the terminal right behind the hotel and taken the tram to our terminal, but now that would have been a bit too much.

Getting ready to take off from Paris.

We had an uneventful 45-minute flight to Amsterdam, picked up the car and were on our way by 11:30am. Our stop today was Huis Doorn, the final home of exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. After WWI, the Allies insisted he abdicate as Emperor. He fled to neutral Netherlands where Queen Wilhelmina offered him refuge. In 1919, he bought Huis Doorn and lived there until his death in 1941.

Huis Doorn

The grounds were very pretty.

He bought the house empty, so he had 67 boxcars of furniture, accessories, paintings, rugs, tapestries, etc., sent from Germany.

The desk was beautiful, and I love the Wedgewood vase on the cabinet behind the desk.
Not quite sure what all the glasses are for, but they are very pretty.
One of the drawing rooms.
Early 20th century technology.

He is buried in a mausoleum behind the house. The building is closed to visitors, though, so we didn’t get to see the tomb.

We also stopped in at the Pavilion, which had a temporary exhibit of bicycles and a permanent exhibit about WWI.

The oldest bicycle in the exhibit.

After visiting the museum, it was only about an hour to the Rotterdam Holiday Inn which we are calling home for the next 4 nights. There nothing to see in town but we’re only about 5 minutes from the central train station so it’s a good base of operations for the next few days. Tomorrow, I think we’ll head to the Kinderdijk Windmills, a UNESCO World Heritage site. It should be fun.

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