To all those thinking this is a post about football/voetbal/soccer I apologize in advance. This is a post about my desire to hit all 12 provinces of the Netherlands. I know you are thinking, “But the Netherlands is so small that shouldn’t be a problem”, well you are right; the Netherlands IS small but like living in any country it seems once you reside there you stop travelling with in it. In Canada I had only made it to 5 provinces, and knowing full well that the chances of me making it too all the provinces were slim to nil especially the territories. So instead I’ll some how make it to all the provinces here in the Netherlands.
Out of the 12 I’ve managed to get to 7 of them, traveling through them like Noord-Brabant doesn’t count, I actually have to get off and touch soil and spend time there. do the tourist thing. And this year I was able to add once more province to the list of where I’ve been, Zeeland (more on that in another blog).
The Provinces I have been too and some of the cities located in it are:
Noord-Holland**: Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem.
Zuid-Holland**: Rotterdam, Delft, Den Haag, Gouda
Utrecht: Amersfoort, Utrecht
Gelderland: Apeldoorn, Nijkerk
Overijssel: Zwolle, Deventer, Giethoorn
Limburg: Maastricht, Valkenburg
Zeeland: Middelburg, Vlissingen
So the ones that are left are Flevoland, Nood-Brabant (I’ve driven through here before but never stopped), Frysland, Drenthe, and Groningen.
Sooner or later I will make it to those provinces, the train system here in NL is pretty darn good and I can get pretty much anywhere I need to go. But when you start going the longer distances it’s costs more of course and it can get a little pricey. For example for me to get back to Zeeland (which I will do later on this year for a day) a round trip from Amersfoort to Middelburg is 39,00 for one. After a while it does add up. Still I want to see as much as I can. Train travel is great for me since I can basically veg out and just read for the trip, a bit of a change from the driving I used to do back in Canada, except on the train people aren’t as appreciative of my singing like Stoney is.
** The name “Holland” which many people use to refer to the country is actually the two province names. Most Dutch, especially those that do not live in either North or South Holland Provinces do not like using that term for their country and would rather people use The Netherlands.
A Canadian in clogs 