About the national anthem: it’s from the perspective of William of Orange, NOT from the perspective of the person singing the Wilhelmus. And a) he actually was originally from what is now Germany, b) Duits didn’t mean German at the time the Wilhelmus was written. There was no Germany back then. What Duits used to mean was: mainland Germanic south of the Danes. The English narrowed the meaning of the word Dutch to mean... well... Dutch. The Germans (Deutsch) and Dutch (Duits) narrowed it down to mean German. This narrowing down happend in the centuries after the Wilhelmus was written. There’s still this old fashioned Dutch word ‘Diets’ which is a variation of the word Duits and it means Dutch. Duits got narrowed down to mean German, Diets got narrowed down to mean Dutch. Diets has fallen out of use though. A few lines further down the Wilhelmus it says ‘the king of Spain have I always honoured’. Which doesn’t make any sense for present day Dutchies but it did for William of Orange. (And then there’re reasons given explaining why William rose against the Spanish king despite having honoured him always before)

#4 Amsterdam. It's literally a swamp. All those canals are there not just to look pretty, that's actually how you 'drain the swamp'.... * crickets * But a drained swamp is still not a stable foundation to build on, so you'll need to slam some poles through the bog until you hit sand. Part of the success story of Amsterdam is that, because it used to be a swamp, no nobles or clergy had any claim to it. So when the technology to drain it was developed in the late middle ages, it had a head start as a kind of free trade area ruled by the merchant class and quickly rose to become an economic powerhouse.

Fun fact: The highest point in the Netherlands is actually 887m above sea level and no where near Europe. It is Mount Scenery on the island of Saba.

About those wooden poles holding up huge buildings in Amsterdam and other places: they were mostly Norwegian Woods! Yes, we cut down all of our coastal oak forests and sold them to the Dutch, who used them to build ships to go to the East, and poles to support buildings. Sadly, we don't have many oak trees left, as the climate got colder and they didn't regrow. Oh, and lots of the seamen on those ships were Norwegians too, creating employment for the then-poor Norwegians- Lots of that wood also went to build London - Norway was the world's largest exporter of timber for 400 years!

I fly KLM a lot for my work and last year I was finally flown by our king from Amsterdam to Rome. He did not use the on-board PA, and the captain did not say who was first officer, but we could see him boarding with the crew from the platform. I had already been wondering about the military police with the automatic weapons at the gate, but then I understood why. He made a really smooth landing in Rome by the way. So that was a real "Royal" Dutch Airlines flight.

Nice video, but please for the next one, adjust the audio level. It is much lower volume then the commercials.

Fun Fact. The houses in (old) Amsterdam were build leaning forward. If you look on top of most of the buildings you see a hook. In the oldendays they used that hook to bring goods to the top floors were most of the warehouses were. Now they are still used to bring furniture up and down. And the houses are small but high (for the time they were build) because you payed tax on the wide of the building. And no one wanted to pay more tax.

The national anthem is a hymne on William of Orange (the leader of the Dutch revolt against Spain). He came from Germany (Dillenburg) but had inherited the title Sovereign Prince of Orange (a principality in nowadays France). That is one explanation why it says "of German blood" because he was. Furthermore in German, German is called Deutsch (sounds almost like Dutch). It means "of the common people in old German. Also from a juridical point of view (before 1585, remember the hymne was written earlier), the Netherlands consisted of many provinces all part of the holy roman (German) empire. So, there's that. What is more weird is that the leader of the revolt against Spain in the national anthem allegedly says that he has always honored the Spanish King. That is because the aim of the Dutch revolt in the beginning was not independence. That evolved later on. Remember the hymne is from the very beginning of the Dutch Revolt! And on the "mountains" don't worry, we learn in school that all below 500 meters is a "hill", from 500-1500 meters high is "modest mountains" and from 1500 meters upwards is "mountain".

The anthem thing, the Dutch national anthem predates the whole notion of "Germany" as a nation state by several centuries, so in the context of the time it was written, it means, as you correctly assumed, "I am of germanic origin", since the Netherlands are part of the germanic cultural and linguistic region. There's also a line in there about always having honored the Spanish king, which is ironic since the country was born by rebelling against the Spanish. The king the anthem refers to is the one predecessor of the king we rebelled against. The Netherlands wasn't even a monarchy back then, it was a republic. It didn't become a monarchy until after Napoleon invaded.

The more videos i watch you talk about The Netherlands, the more i get the idea you love it here ;-)

Fact.....most houses in the netherlands are build on heipalen....old systems used wood because that was Est at the time. The reason is that this way the houses stand on the hardest ground deep inside the soil. The top is to soft. Will the houses fall over? Nope. Moderne houses do that sooner...even in the usa....then these old houses.

If you havent been there yet don't forget to visit the 'little switzerland' area in the very south of our tiny country with it's just as tiny range of not mountains. You will probably notice the difference with the rest of the Netherlands. Do a tour below the Maastricht/Valkenburg line and visit country side villages. If you feel confident and exercised enough perhaps even do the tour on bike so you can tell how 1000ft hills can feel like mountains after all :).

-The king flies(flew) every 2 weeks a European flight to keep his licence up to date. He will use the name W.A. van Buren. He is also count van Buren. -Most houses in the west of the country are built on concrete polls. The are stamped so deep they stand on a hard layer of underground. Otherwise everything would sink into the sand. As you sayed, there is many reclamed land. That's all sand, not stone. -About the anthem. What we sing are the words of Willem of Orange, its his text and he says: Willíam of Nassau, I am of German blood. It means more or less: I am Willem and I was born in a family who comes from the lower parts of Germany. Not the state Germany, thats didn't excist up to the 1880s. The anthem has 15 verses. When you take each first letter you get the word WILLEM VAN NASSOV. The first verse is sung most times, and sometimes (in church) the 6th one. Its about Williams confession to God, how he has trust in him. The rest fof the verses are about the story of the 80-years war, how he lost his brothers in battle, etc.

There is a song of Nits (a Dutch band) that's called: 'In The Dutch Mountains'...

This channel is so much fun! U do it very well and u deserve much more subscribers. I’m a fan :)

Awesome video. Thank you very much for your sharing :) I love your videos :)

"The monarchy is not as exciting as I thought"--that is by design. The Oranjes like to keep it that way, unlike e.g. in Britain. The king flying: he is a qualified pilot, and needs to spend a certain amount of time flying to keep his qualifications. He also enjoys it. He does it incognito, the passengers do not know they are being flown by the King. Wooden poles: and these poles are also many centuries old. So don't worry: they are not going to suddenly break down--except if the water table drops and they start to rot. William the Silent was indeed from German blood: he was ruler of (among others) the principality of Nassau, which lies in Germany. Not Nassau in the Bahamas, which was named in his honour. William and his offspring gained the right to rule the nation by leading the revolt against Spain in the 80-years war, not through his titles or place of birth. And some other random weird facts: we were also the first nation to denounce an abusive dictator through a Declaration of Independence, which the american one was modeled after. We had the first stock exchange, the first publicly traded company, the first multi-national company, after our independence we long dithered between a confederacy and a republic, finally becoming a monarchy in 1813. So the Oranjes had to wait 200 years before they became Royalty. One Oranje did not have the patience and instead became King of Britain. New York was originally a Dutch colony--which may be why you feel so at home here, New York still seems to have some traits inherited from the Dutch. The Franks that came to rule France were actually Dutch. The Angles that conquered Britain (with the Saxons) were also mainly Dutch. But that was before the nation was defined, so some north-german and danish also came along. Let's call them Dutch anyway! Did you know the Netherlands is officially bi-lingual? Frisian is an official language. Frisian is the closest language to English there is, due to the Frisians exporting their language to Britain in the 6th century when they were called the Angles ;-) And we were the first nation to allow same-sex marriages, but I am sure you already knew that ;-) Etc etc. I like history... Oh, and did you notice were are quite a proud nation? You don't tell a Dutchman what to do. Many foreign managers fail here because their management style is too dictatorial. We like our hierarchies flat. People with power still need to "Doe Normaal". The janitor likes to give the CEO or the Prime Minister advice. We all have our opinions, and like to voice them. I like you channel, seeing my nation through a fresh pair of eyes.

It's so fun you mention these things, we are so used to them we find them 'normaal' but they are actually kinda cool ;)

O ....I realy like (love) how you approach the the dutch topics....it makes me smile...thank you!

Like your blog! Note that Willem Alexander never says his name when flying, so normally the passangers don't know that he is the pilot.

Please turn the volume up. I have my speakers and KZfaq volume setting maxed and still you are on whispering level.

Out national anthem is about Wilhelm van Oranje. In the past "Duits" meant "common people". So the first line of the enthem says: Willem van Oranje is a man of the people. (although he was nobility)

Below sea level is half the story. The NL is the flood plane of large European rivers Rhine and Meuse, plus lesser ones like IJssel at Schelde. It also is the flood plane of the North Sea over that river delta. Now imagine the pumps stop that keep our feet dry in claimed land. Water management has its own government here, with its own elections. Imagine regular politics with their compromises would govern that - a nightmare. "More land" may not have been the reason to claim land from water, but getting rid of swamp fever (brought by midges). Land was a benefit, though, and became an important driver.

The length of the poles under our houses depend on how deep the layer of sand beneath is. A sand layer forms the stable setting in an otherwise mushy soil make up.

With the mountain thing, I think it's also that language also has a cultural component, and if your country is relatively flat it makes sense that you use the terms differently that make more sense in the context of the country, and thus the highest/steepest parts of your country is what you call mountains, and then you use hill for something between that and completely flat. Meanwhile, if you live in a place with a lot of height variation, you'd probably have a looser definition of flat then we use in the Netherlands; what we call hills you might call flat, what we call mountains you call hills, and what we call flat is just beyond you, and what you call mountains is beyond us.

Fun fact: although we are a weird monarchy now (and have been for a few centuries) we actually were one of the first republics.

If with the houses being crooked you mean they lean slightly forward, that's intentional, combined with the hook that's on top and removable windows, it's to allow for hoisting things up to higher floors, which works better if the house leans slightly forward; you'd remove the window and have a rope on the hook that can be used to hoist things up; of course nowadays that's not really used as we now have moving elevators which are more convenient (although the windows being able to be removed still comes in rather handy for that)

King still is an employee, he was recently retrained for either the 727 or 737 since they retired the Fokkers. Most if not all have a job. Amsterdam was for a large part but not entirely built on poles. Many are rotting now, some being replaced by concrete, but it is hard, time consuming and very expensive and they took measures to not lose more divers making it even more expensive.

Lol... You're funny. ;-) . Regarding the reclaiming the land bit, that obviously was a gradual process which started with small chunks of the river delta behind the island of Holland. The invention of the windmill (15th century) as a pump to drain the land was the breakthrough that enabled reclaiming of ever bigger chunks etc..

Those hills aren’t mountains for us as wel. Those are actually small hills. But if you have to make those Hill you still need to put a lot of sand above each other making ‘“een bult” or “een belt” and that means “een hoop zand” in other words: “een berg zand”. It is that weird translation that change the Dutch word “berg” into the English word “mountain”. So after this I hope you don’t get confused if someone uses the wrong translation.

I was literally chopping up a purple carrot as you were saying you wished they were still around 😆

About the mountain part... You've got to see it through our eyes to understand what we mean. Most of the Netherlands is flat and sure we only have hills. But relative to what we are used to Limburg has some mountains. Which doesn't mean we are not familiar with the mount Everest ;) Try taking the non electric bike out and ride up that vaalserberg and I'm sure you'll see it as a mountain too :)

Another fun fact. You know Wilhelmus anthem is an acrostic poetic style.

Fun Facts....at the moment our defence of the sea is complete. Check out all bridges, dams and constructions of the Delta Plan. The Dutch were called after Katrina hits New Orleans to get knowledge of defence of water. Our King made watermanagement his topic when je was crownprince. Also we are now defencing our selves to water from floothing rivers by giving land back as nature and waterbassin in time of high water. Water it is a topic...and you can always talk about the weather and if rain is expected.

The wooden poles don't rot, for the water level in the ground is kept high enough and standing in water they won't rot. Also some to know, they drill the hole, then throw in cow hides and such, then put the pole in and that hole filled up with water, only the top needed to be protected by something I forgot, for that was dry.

I was always told, that the longest "heipalen" are used in Overveen, close to Haarlem. They are building on veen=peat, hence the name and the poles are 27 meters long. that is how deep the alluvial sand layers are sturdy enough for the poles. there is even an building with 4 basement layers, that floats on the peat like a ship!

Regarding the king flying for KLM: he has a commercial pilot license and in order to maintain it (and as such being able to fly the government jet for foreign trips) he has to fly a certain number of hours on the type of plane he was certified for. That was when the government plane was a Fokker F100 and KLM was also still operating them. That has changed now as KLM has decommissioned them all and also the government F100 has been decommissioned. So I don't think he is flying for KLM anymore. Oh, and it was never announced he was piloting a flight.

Not only Amsterdam is built on poles, a large part of the country is. The ground is too soft to build on directly, if you do that it would just sink into the ground. In the past they used wooden poles, so in most of the old parts of city's there are still buildings on wooden poles. But today we use concrete poles, in Dutch they are called heipalen. They are used to transfer the weight to a sand layer somewhere between 5 en 20 meters down

I was born in Muiderberg, a town next to the city of Muiden. probably as high as 5ft. Correct me if I'm wrong. then we moved to Hilversum. Part of that was Trompenberg, there again you would never know if you passed it

I used to live on top of the 'Paasberg' = 'Easter mountain' in Lochem. It is 33 meters high.

Re: mountains and hills, check out the fun little movie “The Englishman who went up a mountain and came down a hill”. But basically, above 300m can be called a mountain.

I live in Assen and we have this really small hill here, you can literally walk up it in less than a minute an we call it the pitteloose berg(pitteloose mountain)

And to make it even more confusing, the anthem says that Willem van Oranje in the first person, "always honoured rhe king of Spain".

one of the benefits of orange carrots is their carotene content. Carotene is a pre-vitamin A, meaning that when the body is in low supply of vitamin A this colour agent can be split into two vitamin A molecules to supply the body. (In Asia the "golden rice" is actually genetically modified to contain vitamin A because Asian population suffered from a massive vitamin A deficiency. While I do not know if this had anything to do with the orange carrots, it's a nice added benefit.

William of Nassau was indeed born in what is now Germany (Holy Roman Empire) who inherited the princedom of Orange which was in France and spent most of his childhood and youth in Brussels so he probably spoke French as his main tongue. So yes he was a French speaking German who defended what is now the Netherlands and Belgium against a Spanish king.

I live close to the Wageningse Berg (mountain) in Wageningen and it is a staggering 42 meters high!

The Dutch national anthem is even stranger than you might think The melody is originally from France, the lyrics are by a guy from Belgium and it tells the tale of the dispute between the (German) prince of Orange and the Spanish King

Wanna hear something even stranger about the Dutch national anthem? It was written in Belgium! In Belgium there is a beautiful small castle that you can visit to see where it was written.

Haha, never knew that what you said about the carrots. Crazy.

We also sing: 'the king of Spain, I have always honored' in our national anthem.

There was a seabattle going on centuries ago where Schiphol airport is now. Zevenbergen (sevenmountains) is a city below sealevel.

To a lot of Dutch people (I guess especially the ones who travel a lot) a hill of 320 m isn't really a mountain either... But that's what you get when your country really is that flat. I've watched a lot of your videos back to back now, and I have to say, I love your content! It's really fun and interesting to see what an expat thinks of our country. I'm glad you feel so positive about our home. We complain a lot (another thing the Dutch like to do), but I really believe that the Netherlands is one of the best places in the world to live. Sure, I'm a little biased, but still. I hope you have a lot of good years to come in our humble little country. And please keep it up with the awesoome content! You present it in a really fun, genuine and casual way and I even learned some new stuff about my on country. How cool is that?!

Another fun fact you can use. The Netherlands (kingdom) actually has a border with France. It's on the Island of St Maarten.

it's even stranger to sing: i've always honoured the king of spain!

The Dutch was a part of the German empire for a few 100years, we were all German in Europe once, the anthem is so old, that song was written ages ago, when that German empire was not as long ago. Great video.,

Hé, don’t mess with our king ;-). We are proud of our monarchy (well at least most of us) though it’s mostly ceremonial. And we do get a day off, wear our orange hats and shirts again and get wasted at 3 pm....

We not only create our land, but also our mountains. We use them as speed bumps.

I am from german blood is spoken out in the person of William of Orange, our founding father, which was actually a Herman prince ego tot Holland as a present.

Carrots can be white, yellow, orange, purple or blackish, or combinations of these colors. A minute detail which is overlooked is the Netherlands control a very large part of seed development and crossbreeding techniques to improve both the productivity as the resistance against pests and diseases of an enormous amount of crops... This also includes GMO and single use hybrids, but understand crossbreeding is genetic modification ( only through trial and error) as well. Humans have tried to select the strongest plants for 1000s of years now, so this isn't a new development as such. Orange carrots were a gift to the Dutch monarchy by Dutch seed growers, and the fact most people do not know there are other color products is partly because of good marketing techniques and a superior product. Houses in Amsterdam are built on marshy land, without poles the houses topple or sink. The King of The Netherlands is from the house of Orange Nassau which has it's roots traceable to it's creation in 1515, where a German nobleman and a French Noblewoman were wed, and their respective lands of Nassau and Orange were merged. More info on Wikipedia. The highest point of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is actually Mount Scenery (883m) on the Island Saba in the Carribean. As Saba is seen as a municipality it's formally part of the Netherlands.

The _Official_ translation of the first verse of our anthem is as follows: William of Nassau, scion Of a Dutch and ancient line, I dedicate undying Faith to this land of mine. A prince I am, undaunted, Of Orange, ever free, To the king of Spain I've granted A lifelong loyalty.

I like to give to you some background info about the King and the Kingdom. As most modern monarchies being the King is hereditary but it is only a ceremonial function. And that is a great advantage. So modern monarchies implemented a modern job description for the King. But first of all, the King and his family represent the united senses among the citizens. In case of a pandemic, in case of a war, on the national Memorial Day and during World Cup soccer matches or Olympic Games and so forth. This entire saga reunites nearly everybody, it generates a nice national pride and community feeling. So that is part one. It is very important and should not be estimated. With a president you can celebrate the same but is doesn't feel the same because a president is always linked to politics and therefore he might be not your cup of tea. Secondly, and that's not less important, at international contacts, with other countries as well as with other royal families, with contacts with other governments or presidents and with international industry, it is the best when you have a KIng or Queen. The are politically not linked to any party. They can freely speak about anything avoiding difficult international and national issues. They are just the best business card you can wish for. If Trumo, Merkel or Macron would meet our Prime Minister, political and diplomatic issues must be addressed and they are expected to solve matters which can be extremely difficult. Especially when the mutual contact is not running smoothly. But Trump, Merkel or Macron meeting up with the King or Queen of The Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark or the United Kingdom, that is a complete different level. That is about friendship, liaisons, connecting, enjoying and representation. When the diplomatic and political situation is made smooth and nice, than our Prime Minister can start doing what his job is all about. It is wonderful to be able to improve international relationships. Republics don't really understand. Often the pay were revolutionary and kicked out or killed their royal family. But the citizens of modern monarchies were and still are very smart. Having a royal family has a financial price but it also generates a lot of money. In addition: Orange is the national color because the King of The Netherlands has a lot of titles, amongst which the Prince of Orange, a former principality in France. The city of Orange still exists.

Related to the reclamed land: At Neeltje Jans (part of the Delta works) the side of the building says "Hier gaan over het tij de maan, de wind en wij" meaning "over here the tide is ruled by the moon, the wind and us"

There is even a song with the title "In the Dutch mountains", from the group The Nits !

Fun fact, Sint Petersburg is build on poles as well. Tsaar Peter the Great came to the Netherlands to learn about shipbuilding, among other things. So he copied the building proces when he was building Sint Petersburg.

It's still very strange for me. . But the line that we honored the Spanish King is even more strange. especially if you are living in Breda where i live.

The houses in Amsterdam are so crooked because of the way they used to (and still do often) move furniture in and out. All the houses have a hook high up, it's used to lift furniture up and in. Hence the large windows, so furniture can fit through. Due to years and years of lifting furniture, these houses became crooked. Another weird fact

The wooden poles have a length in meters, or centimeters. Not foot! Foot is not a SI standard.

We often refer to the "dijken" as the dutch mountains

Allowing the king to fly, he is a qualified pilot, was a courtesy to the monarch. Passengers were never aware he was in the cockpit.

Duits used to mean "of the people" (which we would now call volks in Dutch) and the anthem is written from the perspective of Willem Van Nassau, it's essentially expressing he's of the same blood as the people of the country, in contrast to the Spanish/foreign king; the whole song originated as Geuzenlied song of the Geuzen (Beggars) which were Dutch Nobles opposing the Spanish rule. Fun fact, the first letter of each verse of the original lyrics of the full song (usually only the first, and sometimes the sixth verse are sung) spell out Willem Van Nassov which was how you'd write Willem Van Nassau back then (the v was still commonly used as a u as well, and au and ou sounds are very similar in Dutch)

Not only our king has a side job, our prime minister has a side job as teacher for one day a week.

building on poles is something that is still very common.

Step 1. Look up the full Dutch national anthem. (We only sing a part) Step 2. Get the first letter of each couplet. Step 3. Organise the letters. Last step. Read it out!

'Are we living in the 17th century' is very funny because back in the 17th century the netherlands was one of the few republics in existence

Wood submerged in water, clay, mud or anything other WET will last basicly for ever as long as it is never in contact with air so it is pretty safe.

The Dutch national anthem is a battle hymn from the 80 year war, which is right at the origin of the country. The Dutch provinces had been completely autonomous before, but were now under Spanish control. There's a reference to honoring the Spanish king in there because it was the duke ruling here that was so hated, not the Spanish king. It's sung from the perspective of the one organizing our side of the war, who later more or less founded the country and is the ancestor of our royal family. One of the titles he held was related to a region of modern-day France called "Orange", which is where the Dutch association with that color comes from. He was actually from Nassau, which is in modern-day Germany, though. However, the Netherlands had not been founded yet, and the term Diets actually referred to the Germanic area of Europe at the time, which includes both current day Germany and the Netherlands. That word is the origin of "Deutsch", "Deutschland", "Dutch" and that part of the national anthem.

Our country on the west/north is sinking in for centuries. It´s a river delta. Therefore it is relatively easy to reclaim land. In Florida it is about the opposite, the sea rises up from under the land.

Like Stefan Peerboom said, back when the Dutch national anthem was written, there was no Germany :) Almost 99,9% of the Dutch people don't give a crap about the whole Dutch anthem, but even more (yes more) don't even know the origin of the line 'ben ik van Duitsen bloed'.

Fun facts for a linguist: I have a pdf copy of a dictionary called "Nederduitsch woordenboek¨ from 1860. It formed the basis of all Dutch dictionaries ever since. Yet, the word "Nederduits" (modern spelling), has vanished from our language long before WW II. On the other hand, Jonathan Swift in 1728 mentions languages familiar to the character Gulliver and there he mentions "low dutch" and "high dutch", but not german.

Another thing about "ben ik van Duitse bloed"; older people in the Netherlands have learned the next line by heart; "in 500 voor Christus kwamen de Batavieren bij Lobith ons land binnen" (in 500 BC the Batavians entered our country at Lobith) ... so ... all the Dutch people are immigrants ;-)

Hi Eva, the 1st verse not only says: “I am of German blood” (true for the house of Orange) but also “I have always honored the king of Spain”. The latter has a nice connection with the1581 "Act of Abjuration" (google it): As this king didn’t serve his subjects well, he “lost” his rights - we declared our independence! Because of resemblances in the text it is speculated that Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the "Act of Abjuration" when he drafted the American Declaration of Independence.

Did you know the island Texel has a place that is called De Hoge Berg (the high mountain) and it is only about 15 meters high. You hardly see it at all ;). About the wooden polen, old buildings on clay or peat soils have wooden polen under them to keep them from sinking in the soil. Modern building have these poles too, but they are made from concrete. So it is far from exclusive to Amsterdam and the poles aren't under the streets themselves.

Another nice fact is that the Dutch invented the first stock market. Also don't agree with the term reclaimed land because it was never land. We just kicked the sea out.

Interesting video, but please increase your volume when recording. I had trouble catching everything you said even with my volume turned fully up.

Americans might be interested in the fact that the Dutch invented modern capitalism. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is the oldest in the world. You could buy and sell stock and bonds issued by the first multinational company, the VOC (the Dutch East India Company), established in 1602. The Netherland were a republic and consequently the overseas trade wasn't organised by a monarch, but by entrepreneurs and managers, so it was all private initiative. Capital raising was a private matter, there wasn't any tax payers money involved.

Willem van Oranje (Dillenburg, Germany, April 24, 1533 - Delft, July 10, 1584) is the Dutch father of the fatherland, and the founder of the House of Orange. This is why im from German blood

The poles shouldn't be that surprising. Haven't you seen a building being constructed? You need a solid foundation. And in the time before concrete, they put wooden poles in the soft ground, until they reached a harder layer underneath. Wooden poles have been replaced by other materials, but the priciple still stands.

About the poles; Amsterdam is not as unique in that way as you might think. Lots of cities are in some degree built on poles. It either be because of being built in a swamp, like Amsterdam, or being build around or even on top of at river, like Antwerp. Next to Amsterdam, Venice is of course also entirely built on poles.

The anthem really is a song about and from the perspective of William of Orange/Willem van Oranje aka Willem de Zwijger en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Silent. He was a German count of Nassau and also a prince of Orange, France. Born in Germany I think, and of German blood as it says. It also says he's always honored the King of Spain even though he was in open rebellion.

Those poles are driven into the swamp, so, the houses are build "on poles" partly, and partly on mud.. the poles connect the sandy underground and the houses...these days concrete poles...

We almost find our dunes mountains ..... :-) It all depends on your own perspective and ours is really, really flat ..... hihi!

In Amersfoort we have the 'Amersfoortse berg' the mountain of Amersfoort which is about 50 meters high.

ALL old houses in cities built in 'wet areas' with clay soil are built on wooden pile foundations! The new ones are built on concrete pile foundations btw 😉. As long as the wood stays under the ground water level, it will survive centuries!

One of the reasons king Willem-Alexander flies for KLM is to maintain his Air Transport Pilot License. But he can only fly aircraft commercially, with crew and passengers, if he regularly does do such flights and if he's knowledgeable enough about the type of airplane he flies. He used to fly Fokker 70s but the KLM stopped using that type of airplane and he now flies Boeing 737s. About our national anthem, the original line was "Ben ick van Duytschen bloet" The word Duytsch here means something different than 'German'. It's the name for the language the people of the Eastern and Northeastern low lands spoke that spoke a German accent. There was also Dietsch, which was the name for the German accents in the Southern and Western low lands. At the time the anthem was created, the Netherlands in its current form didn't yet exist as a nation and the Dutch language didn't exist as well. There was more of a spread of local dialects which from region to region sounded very similar but were quite different on both ends. From the low lands towards the Alps where the low lands spoke Diets, Duuts, and eventually, high German. When viewed politically all these lands were part of the holy roman empire. Some, like the Netherlands were held by the king of Spain (one of the major Habsburg branches), others by local lords, Prussia or another major Habsburg branch which was also the king of Austria. It was a patchwork of small nations. The Dutch got fed up with the Spanish Habsburgs and fought a war of independence for which Willem van Nassau was the leader. He is the founding father of the Dutch monarchy, although it took a few generations to get there. His official estate, Nassau, actually does lie in modern day Germany. But the current house of Orange-Nassau (family name of the Dutch monarchy) doesn't hold lands there any more.

About the mountain thing: You know how eskimos have a bunch of different words for snow because they have so much snow? Well we have the opposite of that with height differences. While the word 'mountain' and dutch word 'berg' technically translate to eachother, they don't quite mean the same thing. I typically associate a much larger structure with the word mountain, wherease the word berg doesn't really have to refer to something very large. In some ways 'pile' or 'heap' might be a better translation for 'berg'. For instance I would never call a 1 meter high pile of sand a mountain but in dutch you would call it "een berg zand". So no, we are not calling vaalserberg a mountain, you are, we call it a berg, which doesn't quite mean the same thing but there is no better translation.

It's not just Flevoland but also the haarlemmermeer a former Lake. Smack down in the middle is schiphol

To expand on Stefan's comment: It indeed does not mean "German" blood. "Duitsen" is the same word as dutch, Duits en diets, and it means "volk", as in people. Germany is called Deutschland in the German language, which simply means "The land of the people". Diets can also mean the language of the people, which is different from what the monarchs spoke. In it's meaning of "people", Duits/Deutsch refers to the unity of different states in Germany. One people, united in one country. Likewise, "ben ik van Duitsen bloed" should be understood as "I genetically belong to this people." So our national anthem is not referring to out neighboring country, but simply has racism as it's first line.

Willy flew me to Ibiza once. It's true. I saw him boarding when I was waiting for the gates to open.

Another funny fact: Do you know where the name Holland came from? The name Holland first appeared in sources for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By the early twelfth century, the inhabitants of Holland were called Hollandi in a Latin text. Holland is derived from the Old Dutch term holtlant ("wood-land"). Wood land, where are these woods? It is countryside and cows every where!

A pilot has to do a certain amount of flying hours to keep his license and so does our king. That’s why he often is a pilot. The British royals are from German blood; a lot of European royals are. Most of the country is flat but just visit the region of Nijmegen or the south of Limburg where it’s different.