Holland/The Netherlands

Have you ever seen that Seinfeld episode where George and Jerry are discussing whether Holland is the Netherlands or is part of the Netherlands and either way, then who are the Dutch? Well...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland
The Netherlands is often called Holland, which is formally incorrect as North and South Holland are actually two of its twelve provinces (see terminology of "the Netherlands"). The word Dutch is used to refer to the people, the language, and anything appertaining to the Netherlands.
So, per wikipedia, there you have it.

At any rate, we spent Thurs-Sat in Leiden, Holland. We drove Friday to Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden. It was incredible. That afternoon we walked around Haarlem, a suburb of Amsterdam, and then to the coast to dip our fingers in the North Sea. It was ridiculously windy, so we didn't stay long at the beach. Later, we went into downtown Leiden for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was really good! Saturday we went to neighboring city Den Haag (the Hague), to the M.C. Escher museum, and the Mauritshuis Museum where we saw works by Rembrant and Vermeer among others. After the museums, we went to a market. I had hoped it would be a touristy thing, but it was more like a flea market. We didn't stay long.

After Den Haag, we drove up to Amsterdam and walked all over the city, saw the coffeehouses, the "red light" district, and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Sunday we drove back to Burstadt.

I loved the Holland landscape. Patures of cattle (dairy farming is a main agricultural business) as far as your eyes can see, flowers, windmills all felt somehow comforting. Peaceful. Country.

I'm working on some pictures. Hope to have them up soon.