A short time ago I received the question to blog about where I live.... Well, to me it's quite simple: I live in a very small village in The Netherlands. A small country on the north coast of the Norhtsea. No, it's not Danmark. No, our capital is not Brussels. No, we don't speak German (as a matter of fact most of us do, a little, but not as our native language.)
So now that a few misunderstandings are out of the way, where do I live?
Ok, this might be too general an indication. But at least you have in incling as to where you would fly into if you came over for a cuppa. Just to give you some statistics, The Netherlands are:
- 41,526 km² in total
- of which 18% consists of water
- and most of which is under sealevel.
- there are 16,528,699 of us
- our capital is Amsterdam
- our government is seated in The Hague
- and we speak Dutch (which to most foreigners sounds the same as German, but defenitely is not)
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If we didn't protect ourselves from al that water, about 40% of our country would disappear, as would the village I live in. The Netherlands would look like the picture on the left.
But now you still don't know where I live! As I said it is a little village called
Kanis, if you want to "fly in" search
Kanis, Utrecht with Google Earth and you will almost end up in my backyard. As you will notice it's a very small village, surrounded by lots and lots of farmland. If you have taken a close look at my profile, you will have noticed it says "Kamerik" and not "Kanis". I can tell you why: to the postal service the small place I live in doesn't exist. As far as they are concerned I live in the nearest village, which is called
Kamerik, and lies about 1,5 km's south to our village. To make it even more confusing: the community we live in is called
Woerden. There is also a little town called Woerden, about 7 km's south. So how small is a small village and how little is a little town?
- In my village Kanis live about 600 people, that is including the farms surrounding us
- In the community of Woerden there are 48,395 people in total, of which 33,927 actually live in the city
To give you a comparison:
- Amsterdam is our largest city that harbours 1,36 million people including those living in the suburbs
- New York is the largest city in the United States and has over 8,36 million inhabitants
So now you know where I am. I hope you enjoyed your short visit in my small country. It's nice out here, so you're welcome to visit an find out more about those clogwearing, tulipminded people under the winds of the Nothsea. As long as you never forget:
"Home is where the heart is."
If we didn't protect ourselves from al that water, about 40% of our country would disappear, as would the village I live in. The Netherlands would look like the picture on the left.
O Dees, fantastic post about where home is! Thank you! So you wear clogs and carry tulips around, huh? Kidding! LOL. now for some local pics...???
ReplyDeleteThank you, Dees! I have to get out my maps to see if we bicycled through your village in 1974, when my then boyfriend and I bicycled for 3 months in Europe. We spent two + wonderful weeks in the Netherlands. It holds a special place in my memory because of the friendliness of the people. I recall a dear old man, riding a bicycle in wooden clogs, who didn't speak any English, but with whom we had quite a conversation about cheese, farming and the weather... all in gestures, smiles and his few words of English. I would LOVE to fly in for a cuppa with you! (Here is an amazing coincidence... the word verification image right below this comment box shows the following letters: flyini... Is it meant to be???
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