Dutch Manners

More soccer tonight. It seems the whole country stops during game time. The Dutch team just scored and I hear cheering and the sound of horns in the neighborhood. The Dutch people take their soccer seriously here judging by the amount of orange clothing worn and orange decorations displayed. Yesterday, we borrowed a couple of bikes and biked to a park, through the center of town, and back. The "fietspad" or bike path ran along the airport property. I could see in the distance some planes taxiing after landing and getting ready to take-off. Some old men were fishing in the canal along the path and a couple other biked past us at a leisurely pace. It looked like they had full side packs on their bikes I couldn't help but think they must have some good Dutch bread and cheese packed for a lakeside picnic. There was weathered sign on a fence post that said, "denk om de schapen" watch out for the sheep and sure enough, sheep were all along the path munching grass with the occasional sheep looking up as we biked past. We pedaled on and came to the lake and park grounds. They were putting up tents and grandstands and grooming a ring for a horse event. The fietspad wound around the lake and we came to a fancy restaurant. The restaurant jutted out into the lake and we had to go past two walls of water cascades to get to the door. We relaxed on the patio overlooking the lake before continuing on our ride. On the other side of the lake there were cows grazing on top of a dike. This area of the Netherlands or Holland as it is commonly called, used to be a big lake, but in the 1800s the water was pumped out to make more farmland for crops and grazing. The subsequent flat land is called a polder. There needs to be pumping mechanisms like windmills, dikes to hold the water back, and canals to carry the water away. The Dutch are experts at managing water removal systems. New Orleans can take some lessons from the Dutch. We saw a squat cement bunker type building that we later found out was built during WWI. If the enemy was on the way the idea was to cause flooding of all the land in the north to hold them back. I am unsure how the bunker is connected to this drastic, watery defense plan. As far as I know they did not employ the flooding defense during the German invasion in 1940. The bike paths here are amazing going to the country and back to the center of town. Navigating by bike is much easier than by car. They have bike paths along every road that are only used for bikes and the occasional moped or small motorcycle. All people ride bikes here and many use it as the main mode of transportation for commuting, shopping, taking the kids to school, and generally getting around town. Although, driving a car in rush hour traffic is just as frustrating as anywhere else with just as many cars. Luckily, most people take the train, bus, or bike to work otherwise the traffic would be even worse. We took the bus to Haarlem last week and I noticed there are dedicated lanes for only the buses that are separate from the car lanes. The bus was quick, cheap, clean, and convenient. It would be a great place to get rid of the car and only rely on public transportation. I've got a good collection of books about Dutch culture and etiquette going including The Undutchables and Dutch Ditz Manners in the Netherlands and Pocket Guide for American Servicemen to The Cites of the Netherlands

during World War II. The last one is listed as an ebook, but my copy is a paper hardback book. It's a guide written for American servicemen who were in Holland during World War II. I'm not sure after fighting the Battle of Arnhem Operation Market Garden they grabbed the guidebook to sightsee and discover what was left after the Germans bombed and plundered national treasures. The US government published book suggests servicemen sightsee as much as possible while paid for by the American taxpayer. All of the books give insight into Dutch culture, but nothing beats sleeping next to a Dutchman to learn the culture and peculiarities of the Dutch! :) Geert Hofstede's book, Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind is good to understand culture in the context of the organization. I mention this book because Hofstede is Dutch and writes the book from the prospective of a Hollander. He includes many cultures in the book and, of course, Holland is one of them.