Nederland.... Poem by Sylvia Frances Chan

For those interested:

It is a very small country, with a Christian faith,

A monarchy headed by King Willem-Alexander
with his consort Queen Maxima and their three daughters
their house is called Huize Paleis Ten Bosch

NL is one quarter of the island of Java in Indonesia,
Perhaps also one fifth, but it was ¼ when I was still
in the elementary school

The Netherlands has twelve provinces:
North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, on the coast
North Brabant, Utrecht, Flevoland, Gelderland, in the middle
Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe, in the north
Overijssel, and Limburg. In the East

Each province has its own capital.

At the coast:
Noord-Holland with Haarlem
South Holland with The Hague
Zeeland with Middelburg

In the middle:
North Brabant with 's Hertogenbosch
Utrecht with Utrecht
Flevoland with Lelystad
Gelderland with Arnhem

In the north:
Friesland with Leeuwarden
Groningen with Groningen
Drenthe with Assen

In the East:
Overijssel with Zwolle
Limburg with Maastricht

Amsterdam is the capital for the whole of the Netherlands
and is located about 12 meters below sea level
the houses there are all built on stilts and
they date back to the Dutch Golden Age
when One Tulip is more expensive than a well built house!

Do you know that amusing story about The Tulip?
One day, the wife canm home and love to cook a special dish for herself. When the husband came home and was looking for his Tulip Seed, the wife replied: I dunno that it was YOUR expensive tulip seed
I THOUGHT it was a fresh onion.............

you know that, the years with the talented and later famous artists, became wealthy, but always died in poverty,
apparently they had a hole in their hand....
because the Netherlands back then was throwing money over the beam, not as now as stingy as a….

You just have the four seasons Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter here
The main food is potatoes and now mainly rice with all kinds of foreign vegetables, very heakthy though!


Was recorded by lecturer Sylvie Tan
© Sylvia Frances Chan - All Rights Reserved
Friday, May 22,2020