At my work the other day, our subject was about our 2018 Trip to Amsterdam. We talked mainly about food, but many sentences contained the words “tiny” and “cute”. I have never looked at my home country that way. What is it that the Netherlands is often labeled as tiny and cute?
Okay, yes, true, the Netherlands as a country is tiny. Sometimes people here in town want to know how tiny it is (and how crowded), I’ll tell them that the Netherlands fits 6 times in the state of Iowa. Iowa has about 3 million people and the Netherlands has about 17 million people.
Everything in the USA is big
I live with my family in the US since 2006, After these 15 years a lot of things you get used to very quickly. So when we visit the Netherlands, several things are tiny and cute compared to the USA. Narrow and winding roads, small cars, the use of small spaces in a practical way.
Every time when my parents from the Netherlands come over to the US and we go to a grocery store (which are huge compared to the ones in Europe) or restaurants (menu’s are full of things to order), they always have to smile, sometimes laugh out loud how big things are. Huge plastic bottles of brandy, big pack of sugar cubes, tubs of ice cream!
Charming towns and small houses
Dutch Stairs are narrow and steep
During our trip to the Netherlands with my BlueFish Clothing colleagues, we stayed in 2 Airbnb’s, right next to the famous Amsterdam canals. Wile exploring the Airbnb’s, the cafe’s and restaurants around the corner, my colleagues were commenting on everything they saw and experienced. For example going up and down stairs.
“How can the Dutch, who are considered to be one of the tallest in the world, going up and down these stairs without falling flat on their faces?”
This article explained why the Dutch have steep and narrow stairs.
Why do the houses look so crooked and narrow.
During our visit, pictures were usually taken of the different crooked houses on the canals, because they looked so adorable with all those tiny windows and detailed facades.
But why are they like that?
All of the houses in Amsterdam were build on wooden poles.
The ground was too wet and soggy to build houses on (about 35 feet of swampy soil). To reinforce the houses, they were build on wooden poles. I’m actually amazed how well the houses kept up after all those years and not totally collapsed. Because of the uneven decay of the wooden poles, the houses look slanted.
There was not much space to build a house in Amsterdam and the houses on the canals were used for merchants and traders of all kinds of goods from other parts of Europe or even South Africa and Asia (Indonesia). The only way to create more space, was building up! Another perk was, building narrow and multi level houses, kept the houses from falling or leaning even more.
If you’d like to visit one of Amsterdam’s smallest houses, go to the smallest tearoom in Amsterdam, Oude Hoogstraat 22. Build around 1600, is 2,02 meters (80 inches) wide and 5 meters deep (16.5 feet).
Visit these tiny houses in Amsterdam
If you like treasure hunts, this one will definitely be a fun one. Going through “de Jordaan” neighborhood on Westerstraat, you might notice 7 houses missing, because suddenly the house numbers go from 54 to 70.
What happened? And why are there 7 adorable, tiny wooden houses wedges into the crack between number 54 and 70?
Madurodam
Actually, the first thing that comes into my mind when people are talking about the Netherlands and the words “tiny” and “cute”, is “Madurodam”. If you don’t have enough time to see all of the Netherlands during one visit, this is a great way to get a feeling about how the Netherlands looks like…..in a tiny way!
“Madurodam” is a park in Den Haag (The Hague) where you can explore the Netherlands in a miniature way. Stroll through a lot of cities in the Netherlands where the models of the buildings are an exact replica of the real ones.
In 2016, we visited this park with our family and there were a lot of fun and hands-on activities for al ages.
The language
My American husband learned a little bit of Dutch during the time he spent in the Netherlands. He played volleyball at a club where he learned some swear words. Those were not tiny words and not really cute, but he got into the habit of putting the extension “-je” behind a lot of nouns. For example he would say “In dat momentje”, which actually should be: “Op dat moment.”, which means: “At that moment”.
The Dutch seem to be obsessed with these diminutive words. Just put”-je” behind a noun and instantly you make something small. “huis” (house) will be “huisje” (small house). This sounds cute too, don’t you think?
Our oldest was the only child who learned Dutch the most of our 3 kids. It was not easy for me to keep up with the bilingual ideas and activities. When they were young they loved “Nijntje”. “Konijntje” is a small bunny in Dutch.
Dutch food is yummy, but tiny and cute?
The first type of food that is tiny and yummy and cute are the “poffertjes”, small Dutch pancakes. You can make them at home too. Here is the recipe.
Another type of food is “kibbeling”, which always sounds very cute to me. Every time we go to the Netherlands and the fish guy is at the square, it’s time to get some “kibbeling”. Even my American colleagues loved it. “Kibbeling” are small pieces of deep fried cod fish.
Maybe there are more cute and delicious things to eat in the Netherlands, but there are only 2 more I can think of at this moment. The more known Dutch cookie in the USA is “de stroopwafel”. The normal size of this cookie is just big enough to fit on top of a cup of tea or coffee. The reason why people do this, is because the cookie will get soft and the “stroop” in the middle will get more gooey.
In the last few years I have been seeing bags with smaller “stroopwafels” and I’ve been giving these cookies as a gift in a beautiful cup. You could make the “stroopwafels” yourself, but first you need a special “stroopwafel-maker” and second, you need to be good at cutting the “stroopwafel” evenly to spread the “stroop” on them. I loved the “stroopwafel”-maker at the Albert Cuyp Market in Amsterdam and those “stroopwafels” were HUGE and HOT!!!!
The other thing I actually made myself when I wanted to give the teachers an Appreciation Gift, were these tiny, cute and yummy apple crumble pies.
I hope you liked reading all the different things about the Netherlands being cute and tiny. If you have any comments or question, please let me know!
Hello everyone,
Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.