Yes it has the canals, houses, women wearing skirts with their long hair down riding on bikes, but there are too many tourists walking around to really give you a true picture of the Dutch.
Hence, why I went to Haarlem - an equally pretty city in my opinion and a bit like Siena to Florence. It happened to be the day of the Rose Festival and the day relationships of all sorts was celebrated. Indeed, Haarlem was the place to be if you love pink or salmon as I'd rather call the color.
Speaking of fish, herring of the raw kind is actually not bad at all with pickles and onions. I was nervous at first but it was actually pretty good.
Another Dutch thing I've found pretty effective - serving most of your beer in small glasses. It means your beer is never flat and always stays good. Only trouble is 0.25l of beer in Holland costs the same as 0.5l of beer in Germany - and German beer is still pretty good at the halfway mark of the stein. Oh and Heineken tastes the same no matter where you go.
Finally of course the windmills. No they're not just a Dutch stereotype - they ruled the world because of them and they're the reason why we have Indonesia and Suriname. There are plenty in the countryside but of course if you were a tourist, you wouldn't know where to go. Thankfully there's Zaan Schade not far from Amsterdam which has not one, not two but 6 windmills! And a village too with cheese and sugar waffles! How touristy can you get!
Oh well at least I've seen a windmill here!
By the way, Zandvoort is worth seeing on a nice day. It looks like Blackpool but the sand is pretty good.
In conclusion, I love Holland and I could see myself living in Amsterdam. After all, who wouldn't love a place with canals, houses with hooks to pull up stuff and bikes and places to see.
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