#also if you're ever in the netherlands go to the Efteling theme park and ride the flying dutchman ridr

[myragewillend]

Visited Groningen last week I was just in time to spend my money on the May fair. lol Do you have cities you'd recommend to visit next or any NL attractions for that matter? Also, stroopwafel... my beloved..

Got this ask right after someone else's ask about visiting the Netherlands, lol.

You can't visit the Netherlands and not visit any art museums. You've got Rembrandt, Vermeer and Van Gogh in Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh museum), Mondriaan, M.C. Escher and more Rembrandt and Vermeer (Girl With a Pearl Earring) in Den Haag (Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Escher in Het Paleis, Mauritshuis) and other amazing art musea with many of the Dutch masters (Kröller-Müller Museum, Rembrandthuis, etc.).

If you enjoy architecture, there's obviously Amsterdam (boat tour right outside the train station is pretty fun), in Rotterdam you'll find the cube houses, and there are the Delta Works in Zeeland. If you want to visit 'older' cities, you should definitely see Maastricht in the south, one of our oldest cities (and my personal favorite, but for heavily biased reasons, though it's really got a great atmosphere and beautiful buildings and goes right over the river the Maas). In Drenthe you'll find the 'hunebedden' (dolmens), tombs from prehistoric times. As far as castles, we have palaces like Soestdijk Palace and Het Loo and old castles like Muiderslot. Den Haag is also where our government resides, if that should interest you. Personally, I'd say these sort of things aren't really worth an entire trip by itself, unless you're truly interested, but more of a fun thing to check out if you should be visiting any of these cities anyway and have an extra hour to fill.

As far as nature goes we have the Veluwe in Gelderland, a wooded area. Go to Scheveningen if you want to visit the North Sea (also has a Sea Life aquarium). The beach is popular in summer but really I think it's nicer to visit on a cold day, when all you hear are the seagulls and the waves. The northern islands are nice places as well for quiet, beachy surroundings. You're just a month too late for the Keukenhof unfortunately, the world's largest tulip garden.

Lastly, you really should visit the Efteling, a theme park in Noord Brabant with a very unique style, full of fantasy elements and animatronics, including a fairy tale forest with lots of old-fashioned fairy tales (i.e. the originals, not the Disney versions). But also roller coasters and water rides and shit. Though if you mainly want roller coasters, I'd suggest Walibi instead (previously a Six Flags park).

Ever had fresh stroopwafels from a market stall? That shit is the best. I think it's more common in winter. The Efteling has a Winter Wonderland theme going on too then, with lots of stalls serving hot snacks and drinks. Maastricht also does yearly winter markets with ice skating, a huge ferris wheel and tons of stalls with hot glühwein and warm snacks.

Hope that gives you enough ideas lol.

[queer-crusader]

The story of The Flying Dutchman (the actual-ish story, not that one from PotC)

So the story seems to originate from the 1700s, and it's a pretty religiously-based one. It tells of Captain Willem van der Decken, a proud and stubborn man, and his ship The Flying Dutchman. It was the Golden Age of the Dutch (and also the English) Empire, and the Netherlands was dominating the world trade through the VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or East India Trading Company, which was later taken over by England I believe - it gets a tiny mention in PotC). Spices were worth more than gold, and the VOC had their headquarters in Batavia. The one to find the quickest route to sail there got a claim to power and fame, and Willem wanted that claim. (I would call him by his last name but it's annoying and long to type on my phone.)

It was a religious time (hell, the country was freshly established, just off the back of a war between Catholics and Protestants), and Willem, against the wishes of his wife and crew, wanted to sail on Easter Sunday. Like a fucking HEATHEN. Even now there's some shops that don't open on regular Sundays because of religion, but EASTER SUNDAY?? BACK THEN??? Yeah. Disgrace, and worse, sacrilege. But he insisted, he wanted to get to Batavia, Easter or no, storm or no - because on top of things, there was a storm brewing as they got to the Cape of Good Hope (also known as Storm Cape I believe, for good reasons - it was a notoriously dangerous area to sail).

As hell started to break loose, his crew begged him to turn back, but Willem insisted on getting around the Cape. He got so furious, he threw his navigator overboard he famously cried out "By God or the Devil, Easter or no Easter, I will sail around the Cape if I have to sail until Judgement Day!"

So, that's not a good thing to say. The ship and its captain and crew fell into the hands of the Devil, and they were cursed to sail forever, the dead crew silently performing their tasks. Apparently sometimes they would send out sloops to passing unfortunates to hand them stacks of letters, which they asked to be delivered to long-dead relatives. It supposedly sails against the wind with red sails.

I knew the basics of the story, but I got some more details from the Dutch Wikipedia. I am by no means an expert on this tale nor a qualified expert on history or mythology or whatever, and there are definitely people out there who have a far better in-depth knowledge, but this is basically the story as it is more or less known in the Netherlands. Hope that helps @medusinestories!

[tomwaterbabies]

please continue share more of your fun stories!! how many fun places you go? what’s your favourite theme park? recommend theme park to go? I know I can look it up on Youtube and all that (I hate dealing those cringey youtube ads anyway ughhh) but tbh.. your POV stories are more interesting to hear because of your fun vibe. heh I hope that made sense ^^ I’m also trying to save some money to go disneyland one day with my friends after I graduate college :)

i dont think ive ever been told i have a fun vibe LOL thats very kind, thank you!! im glad u enjoy these weird tangents i have about Stuff In My Life

travel is a big thing for me and important for a lot of reasons. one of them being that there is Trauma there and it helps to recover/heal from said severe trauma by going out and just... Experiencing Things. i havent done much yet, but there are some fun stuff ive done here in southern california. disneyland, ren faire, and some interesting places in LA that not a lot of people visit. i could always share those too LOL

out of my favorite themeparks, there's only one ive actually been to (disneyland lol). but it is a dream of mine to someday visit the efteling which is my other favorite. a fairytale/fantasy themepark located in the netherlands with some of the best work ive ever seen even compared with disney! i'd recommend checking it out! or u can have me incoherently discuss it. ur choice (it can be tough finding good stuff on youtube tbh some themepark channels on there... clickbait central and false info LOL)

i hope you're able to save up!! it's a great place. i'd give some ideas on some fun things to do there and other advice but im possibly the worst person to do that. i dont go on thrill rides and have waited hours to meet characters alone