The Netherlands: Beyond Amsterdam Reaction! 

It’s cute how you react. For me it’s so normal and i learn to appreciate it more by seeing it through your eyes. Kinda love my own country now 😅👍🏼thanks for being really genuine

You’re definitely one of the most respectful reaction channels ever. And intelligent also.

Amsterdam and beyond.... And he still stays in north and south Holland which is like just a 0.5% broader perspective than just Amsterdam...😉; he's leaving out all the other provinces.... When I have time, I will find you some vids that are truly beyond Amsterdam😉. None the less; a good improvement, this one and I liked it.

22:32 What they are creating here is called 'zandmotoren' (sand motors) Dutch engineers figured out how to place sand along the shoreline so that the sea itself will keep pushing sand to where it is needed, this way we prevent our beaches disappearing and as a result out seawalls from eroding.

About your question of still working wind-mills: Yes. The old ones still operate. Nowadays by a foundation run by volunteers. But many are also still lived in and operated by a miller and his family, often with the support of a foundation. Many do grind flour, or operate water-pumps, but they will not be essential. Those functions, like keeping a polder dry, are done with modern equipment. Many are open to visits, after an appointment. When you are over here in the Netherlands, have a look in a mill because standing inside a working wooden cock-wheel machine is awesome. I live nearby a still working saw-mill, where the whole construction turns with the direction of the wind. PS. The modern windmills are for generating electricity, like anywhere else.

My grandfather was a miller in The Netherlands, i always used to go with him to the windmill. They mainly used that windmill for visitors to see the inside, but it still worked.

Anekdote: once (before the cell phone) some foreign friends called me from a phone booth in Rotterdam asking me to pick them up. They said they'd wait for me by the bridge that opens and closes and hung up!! I couldn't call them back and had to drive for 2 hrs past all the bridges to find them, because they all open and close haha

The train from Harlem to Rotterdam does not just take a few minutes LOL, its roughly 45 tot 50 minutes

18:46 - Rick Steves is wrong here: It does not take "a few minutes" for the train to go from Haarlem to Rotterdam. The distance is 40km for a bird, by car it's 73km and takes an hour. The train also takes an hour. What does change in a few minutes is when you drive through meadows, with sheep and cows, and then a few minutes later you are in the middle of a city. [Edited for typo in name]

I worked at the flower auction building, sorting carts with flowers to destination. But I only worked there a week. Getting up 4 in the morning is not my thing. hahaha

The leather on the Klompen is for protection. When beting hot iron, sparks me fly of and burn your feet or set you on fire

Great that you choose a Rick Steves' video. He is excellent at showing regions off the beaten track, cultures and food.

Glad they showed my beautiful hometown Delft! Such an underrated city in The Netherlands.

the "bloemenveiling" in Alsmeer, is as big as 200 footballfields and has 2600 employees of 44 nationalities

Yes, this video ignores a lot of the rest of the Nettherlands with beautiful nature like ' de Veluwe' in the east or one of largest sand dunes of Europe ' Loonse en Drunense duinen' . Also alot of historic small towns like 'Heusden' in the south. A lot of castles here to! Just look into it, please. You have still alot to discover! Yes a pride Dutchie here!

This was all nice and all, but only the west of The Netherlands. The east and south side on the other hand are pretty much different. The landscape for instance is so incomparable to the west with lots of forest areas, higher grounds ( yep in the NL 😉), heather fields all over, precious and very rare peat areas and overall so much more nature and rest than the west side. A way more appealing landscape because of that imo.

The leather that the smith had over his clogs were to protect his feet from burns by hot sparks and hot pieces of metal falling of into the clogs instead of on the ground.

Awesome video! And nice to see my hometown of Haarlem. If you ever like to visit my city, I would happily give you a guided tour.

Even Mozart played that organ in Haarlem when he was 10 years old. I organised a Mozartfestival 250 years after that fact. Famous works of Mozart were performed by people from all over The Netherlands and Belgium in that church accompanied by the organ of course.

funfact about the historical windmills: the city: Schiedam has in his historical centre the highest windmills of the world (40 Meters high). Schiedam used them to create "Jenever". they are so tall because they had to come above the houses to get wind. they even got their own right, and that right says that buildings around the windmills aren't allowed to be higher.

The organ in the Big Church in Haarlem has 5058 pipes and is going to be cleaned in the coming period because of accumulated bat-poop (affecting the tin-layer on the pipes) and a wood-eating beetle (mainly the wooden sculptured facade). Since there are so many pipes the renovation will not matter to the playing of the organ, the recitals will continue. Only the front pipes will be visibly gone for a while, but the show will go on :-) You can hear it even outside of the church. Also: In the tower hang the "Damiaatjes", famous clock-bells that play a recognisable tune every hour. Once I lived 20 meters from the church and that tune is now ingrained in me, haha. Still like it every time I hear it when I cycle into town.

Nice to see Hoorn, my hometown.. And the whole country, which I drive through daily, the flower auction in Aalsmeer is a place I visit regularly, it's huge with lots of small businesses inside it, it's not just one firm. The have a sort of mono rail system through the whole building with carts for flower cars, they all have their own identification and route in the system, would like to ride a cart through there once, but it's only for flowers, to bad... I also visit a lot of the glass houses and field growers which produce the flowers and plants, really cool to see all the different types and colors. I have customers in all the corners of the country, from small unknown towns to big cities, from the north into the south of Belgium. If you really want to experience all the Netherlands, take at least 2 weeks, but 3 is better, it's small but varies a lot in building styles and vegetation, the south is less flat, really beautiful near the great rivers and near the Maas. About climate change and sea level rise, it's been a steady 30cm a century without signs of speeding up....

Im from Amsterdam and your vids keeps showing up on my home screen. Keep up the grind. And the Netherlands got more than this in the video lol

Kinda gives a sense of pride, seeing this documentary. Thanks for sharing, haven't seen this.

For Dutch facts, the level shown at 11:02 isn't so extreme at all. The lowest point is located in a reclaimed area called Zuidplaspolder in Nieuwerkerk a/d IJssel and lays 6,76 meter (22 feet) below sea level. And as an answer to your wondering at 12:51: the flower auction complex has 2600 employees.

fun fact is that most old windmills are monuments but........... many of them still function and are kept in working condition. In case of emergency they can and will be activated as a stand by and as such they will still be of use. The windmill in the background though is there for electricty purposes.

I know that guy who started the windmill, he lives in one too.. I drives past by these windmills everyday!! So much fun to see this 😁

Thank a million man! Finally I vid about The Netherlands without the word "Amsterdam" every other sentence. Exploring the two Hollands is a nice start. May you should 'go' over each provence separately. Much appreciated vid!

At the top of the street where I grew up, there is still a working wheat mill, that is operated by a miller. You can buy flour at this mill, eat at the restaurant they added or hire it as a venue for weddings or other celebrations.

16.01 that table cloth brings back memories. We used to have one just like it, very heavy quality, easily 0.5 cm thick and would last multiple generations.....

windmills used to be flour grinders or natural resource of motion (think about mills) but the new ones are for energy mostly. Most windmills are titled with "ancient property" and cannot be teared down. Fun fact: very old houses are tiny because heating a big house in the winter back in the day cost alot of wood so they made small trinkets around and in the house so people knew you were wealthy

Just found your channel a couple of day's ago and i love the video's of the netherlands and those of ushi 👍 awsome!

People who like beaches should go to one of the Wadden islands in the North. I myself I visit Terschelling on a regular basis. In the North of the Island there are a lot of dunes and very large beautiful beaches. Even in the summer, when there are a lot of tourists on the teach, there are still kilometers long stretches of basically empty beaches. Great for beach hiking along the shore. The southern shore has dikes with grass on top of it. The many sheep keep the grass short. The island has also some small forests, a harbor, some nice restaurants, pittoresque villages. Around Nijmegen (in the east) and in South Limburg there are beautiful hills. Both locations Nijmegen and South Limburg are very different from South and North Holland. Too much for a comment on YT. AND there is zo much more In the rest of the Netherlands: Sailing on the lakes in Friesland; national park "The Veluwe" with a great art museum in Gelderland; an open air history museum close to Arnhem; Groningen in the North is a great town with a large art museum. In the SOuth-West (Zeeland) are the impressive waterbarriers of the Delta Works. They were engineered after the big floods of 1953.

The Zuiderzee doesn't exist anymore for decades. Once it got closed with dams it turned into a big lake called the IJsselmeer (lake IJssel) . It's turned from salt water into fresh water.

Yes, most of the both kinds of windmills are still used. And millers are still there :)

What they forgot to tell is that Mozart played on the organ in the Haarlem grote kerk.🙋🏼‍♀️🇱🇺

Both windmills are used. The modern ones are used for generating electricity. The old ones are sometimes still used for pumping out water. The miller normally lives in the windmill and is it's caretaker. Back in the day they used the mills also for grinding grains etc.

My father is a Miller . He is working at a windmill that is build in 1820. And still makes flour for bakers . My father is part of a Historical group and is an official teacher for people that wan to become a Miller. ( I work at a museum as a guide and host and also am part of the Historical Centre ,the youngest of the group with a great eye and giant passion for history ) . So if you ever come to the east of the Netherlands to my town.. I can show you some great history. we even have a Watermill that was build in 1600 .. and it still works ! In the summer we buy there the flour to make pancakes at home.

The Rotterdam harbor was the biggest in the world until 2004, when Shanghai took over this position. 🤪✌🏼

A little sloppy in the video: It's Scheveningen, not Schevinengen and it's Enkhuizen, not Enkhuisen. Minor, I know, but still. I love that he showed a little bit of Haarlem; lived there for 13 years and still miss it! Gorgeous city with a rich history and all current conveniences. Very nice video, although as a lot of others already mentioned: there's SO much more than just North- and South-Holland.

I can not wait until you visit The Netherlands and make videos of it! 😆

The organ in Haarlem is a very famous one. In 's Hertogenbosch there's in beautiful organ too, in the St. Jan's cathedral

I used to work for the Dutch in Colombia and I know that, to date, the Netherlands are the 5th most exporting country in the world. Some of it produced by them, but mostly by re-exporting other goods from around the world. That's INSANE innovation power!

The Netherlands is NOT the most densely populated country in Europa (it is in the EU). There are a four (micro-states) that are more densely populated. 1) Monaco: 18,960 per km2 2) Vatican City: 2,273 per km2 3) Malta: 1,505 per km2 4) San Marino: 546 per km2 5) The Netherlands: 521 per km2

I once heard that the reason that flowers are grown near the coast, is not because that is the perfect (salty) soil. But rather, nothing else grows there.

The Measland keering is uge, I live nearby and happy its there. Ohw and yes smoked eel is a treat, as is herring, just mouthwatering. Back in the day were the boats were made of wood and the men of steel 😉👍👍👍👍

19:24. yea brother WE ARE THE WORLD.! welcome to The Netherlands. whaha

There was also a time Napoleon concurred the Netherlands and there are actually a few sightings left like the Asserbos in Assen. It’s a forrest planted so it could be the backyard of his Palace. Unfortunately the palace was never build, but we still have the forrest. There is also this thing still known that he stood upon a balcony and wanted to say “I am your king” in the dutch language but he ended up saying “I am your rabbit” because of a mispronunciation.

My town Hoorn even came by!!! I knew it had a lot to do with the VOC, but thats amazing!!

You must see the east of the Netherlands. Near the Geran border. We have our own springs there, called the Springendal ;)

@18:23 '..when you need a Co-pilot to play 'em' you had me in stitches.😂🤣😂

really a lot of old wind mills are still in use. The position of the mill actually shows you what it's function is. There are also positions for mourning and joy

yes, the bridge raises and yes, the bell tolls :D A bunch of old windmills still work, though not usually for their original purpose of pumping water. There are some still used to grind mustard, grind flour, things like that

yea we dutchys are good traders and organisers .

24:50 That game is called Stokkenvangspel, it literally means stick catching game. The man with the strings pulls a random string, causing a random stick to fall. The more sticks you catch, the more points you get. We still play it, but it's like, sometimes at markets or something, it's not a weekly or common thing. The game is also modernized now, it's now electronic. You push a button and the machine drops a random stick.

We have modern pumps to,the old ones are still in use for pumping and tourism.and YES we still have millers it's a real profession

So the modern windmill is used to generate electricity, while the old traditional windmill was used to mail bread, drain water or other tasks

Rotterdam is one of my favorite cities After spending a week there for school i already know the centre from my head. Never got bored there. Woke up pretty early all the time though because a road ran right under the hotel. But that did not matter, it was fun every day of the week there.

25:40.. yea dude ofc they are, you dont want that hot steel stuff to fall into your "klompen" XD

My family actually comes from "Schokland", it was a really small island (1.5 square km which is about 0.5 square mile) in the Zuiderzee before it got made into the province "Flevoland". It is now a museum and I've been there once. You can see pictures of the families that used to live on the island with the names below the pictures. They where mostly fishers and because of the unfortunate size of the island, after a while, some incest happend. They had a lot of flooding on the island and because of that the island became smaller and smaller. In 1858 King Willem III commanded that the whole island would be cleared. About 650 people lived on the island and had to relocate.

Yes the bells ring, with the occasional maintenance of course. and yes the windmills still work. No use keeping them if they don't have a function Yes millers still exist my town has one. The stuff they sell is much better quality than supermarket

I live in this country and seen new things, together with you. Keep it up!

my great grandfather died on the southern sea his mate had to sail home alone, they were from kampen, i'm from lelystad the capitol of the reclaimd island

I used to live very close to those city gates of Delft. Yes that bridge works, they hardly ever use it though. On the left site of the bridge there's a row of house boats. The citygates are gorgeous. I have passed them at all times in all kind of wheather and they're just magical

Good to see how you can muster so much interest and enthusiasm about other things.

The old wind mills are usually just a landmark, some home, museum, restaurant or whatever. Some do have some newer function then to make flower. Probably just pumping water or generate electricity. We build enormous amounts of the newer wind mills to produce electricity. Most are about 100 meters high. But on some windy places like on the sea we build those up to 300 meters high.

Aalsmeer is the largest auction in the Netherlands. The second one is in the small village Rijnsburg called flora holland

A lot of the old windmills are still working. The modern mills are using the wind to make electic for homes

Not too long ago there was a miller going to court because the modern electricity windmills gave her's a 'wind shadow', reducing productivity. They are still used, but often for the specialized stuff to be grinded and making some money from small time tourism, educational purposes and monument preservence too. But selling the stuff that's milled really counts. It's an informative video but nutmeg was very expensive because the transport took about a year by ship. For the same reason this Delftware was just imitation Chinese porcelain and more a middle class thing, the Dutch Republic had a huge and big spending middle class, which ate very well and owned paintings too. So this VOC wasn't very important economically, the Dutch got filthy rich in the 1600's by dominating all of Europe's bulk trade on the European seas, which was simply a lot more ships, week in week out. The herring deserves it's statue because in the 1400's the Dutch invented a way of processing herring on the boat so it could be preserved for very long, and it's nutritial value was very important back then, from France to Estonia. That's where Dutch prosperity took off, and even at peak VOC around 1650 the herring fishery brought in a lot more money than the VOC, by far not as much as the Baltic Sea trade though, or the North Sea trade, or the Mediterranean. This dominance of European (and global) trade was not just sailing, trading and navigational skills, but also had to do with the windmill. In 1592 the Dutch engineerd the crank, allowing for making windmills into sawmills and build a lot more ships a lot faster. Ships that could be run with smaller crews and therefore outcompeting the others. The Dutch Merchant fleet in the 1600's was bigger than that of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and every other European country combined. Ships would be worn out after about 20 years of hard work, so the wood was re-used for flooring. One reason there are still so many old boats around is because the hulls got made out of steel in the 19th century, and those are flat bottom designs. Modern boats don't go everywhere in and around the Netherlands because the water isn't deep enough. Smoked eal is great, a true delicacy. Herring is more a casual healthy snack. I've paused my consumption of smoked eel though because the population has to be restored from overfishing, by the Spanish btw, the eternal enemy. They eat them by the hundreds when they are still babies.

Yes the bells ring, the carrilion players play fitting songs for certain occasions. For my niece her wedding it played her favourite song (cant remember what it was tho)

Yesss.. Love that he showed Haarlem. Love the Frans Halsmuseum, the "Grote markt". My daughter lives there and it is less than5 minutes away. I go there a lot, by car, bike or (most of the times) with my boat.. You should definitely come to the Netherlands Paul.. You will love it so much. Btw.. I don't eat "haring"..

The old wooden fisher men boats are called a Botter (my maiden name) 😁

The flowers at 11:23 are from potato plants :)

R E D W H I T E B L U E The Netherlands greetz you, my friend! Love your reactions, your wonderings...enjoying it all

Ok, Rick Steves, 2 thumbs up for doing this great and informative item about our small but beautiful country. And to you ( I don't know your name) but I really enjoyed watching you enjoy Rick Steves' tour through some parts of the Netherlands. If you ever get the opportunity, please come and enjoy for yourself..I think you'll like it here. Also watching you reviewing the Netherlands, makes me appreciate the country even more....so thank you for sharing!

the old windmills where and are still used as huge mills for flower thats used to make bread and what not

Hi HxC I'm pretty sure most questions have been answered, but the older mills were for reclaiming land and grinding oats, the newer ones are for gathering power to foresee houses/companies with electrics. I've seen u eating btw.....care to share? Cause ya making me hungry!! 🤣😂✌️

So nice to see my "backyard" in this vid. Scheveningen represent!!

Nice to see again how nice it was. Wonder if this ever does come back. They are killing the world at moment

I live in Delft and yes, that drawbridge still works. That leaning church actually has some optical illusions bould in the top part and the klok to make it look like it isn't leaning that much. You only see it when you know about it.

7:50 Theres alot of the old windmills that have ceased function and are just there for visitors to look at but the one near me in Haarlem still works and i used to go there with my parents as a child to get special kinds of flowers and such to make bread with at home. The new ones arent windmills but windturbines and they are only used for generating power Its always insane to me how well those things are made that they have stood against the test of time for such a long time being only made of wood 13:45 Couldnt use it if we wanted too. Nowadays its in the middle of haarlem

Morning🤗yep always have flowers in my house🌹and give 🌻⚘to family and friends 😀that's making them 😃👍🤗

Hi, I work in a mill in Amerongen, Netherlands and there are several millers. I sell the flour ground in the mill. Of course most people buy there flour in shops but a lot of people still use this flour 🙂

I can tell you that the airport is almost 6 meters below sea level! (5.90m-5.95m) And where i live in Amsterdam is 2.10-2.15m below sea level. I am a tourguide in the only working windmill of Amsterdam! (Watermill) When you know when you are going to the Netherlands, i will give you a tour in the mill, if you like

the big windmil is generating electric power for the homes. the classic windmils use to keep the polders dry and other mils were to make flower

i dont know the exact number but a lot of draw bridges that i know still work. Most churches have bells that still work, some are no longer used for religious events, for example in Zwolle we have a church reused as a giant bookstore.

13.50 Haarlem. New York's Harlem is named after this town.

I used to work at the flower auction for a while in between jobs. It was pretty hard work that didn't pay all that well, but it was all early in the morning, you have the rest of the day off for your side hustle. It's good to have places like that, they allow people to get out of unemployment. Some people there doing the manual labor had been there for over 30 years. If you're able bodied, you can get work there, which is a comforting thought in a way.

Loved to see my hometown Scheveningen. My house is behind the boulevard. Love the whole video!

the modern windmills are for generating electricity. the old ones where used for water pumping or grinding of wheat to create flour.

What we dutch did we the windmolen in the Netherlands, besides making grain out of wheat. We rebuild the design from the inside so the windmolen could pump out water. In combination with building dams and dyks. The land dried out and became useable. Actually it was very good land to grow on. The Dutch are one of the highest exporters in vegetables and fruits, even with how small of a country we are. Oh and flowers too.

I have an old windmill close to my home that is sawing trees. Part of it is used to make furniture. It is free to visit and I am still planning to go and make an intresting set of pictures.

HXC, thank you for showing us this video, really enjoyed it. I live, 10 minutes from Amsterdam in Zaandam wich also have a lot of windmills in a village called " Zaanse Schans" Wich is a famous tourist attraction. Lots of tourists from all over the world come and visit this tourist attraction. And yes we still have " Miller's". Bye from, Zaandam the Netherlands 🇳🇱🙋‍♀️

There are two windills near where i live. Both are more than 200 years old, and they are still in active service.

How fun I’m living in hoorn so fun to see my home is behind the museum and boats ❤️🫶 loveeee your Dutch journey

I quite enjoyed this one, would love to see you do more exploration vids. Thanks for sharing!

The old mils are stil working sometimes for bakers but not for the big stuff and the mils are keeping maintaining but mostly their first fun and tours

Glad to see my city (Delft) here also. I live like 3 minutes walking from the Oostpoortbrug (the drawbridge). Love this city.

Love your Netherland serie, I learn a lot new. And it’s also humorous too XD

@7:50 someone probably anwsered but yes the old ones do still function but are only used for pumping water in rare cases , a lot have been converted to tourist places, living spaces or applied for other things like flour milling or wood cutting, but almost all of them can still function in their old capacity