ELFSTEDENTOCHT: The 11-city ice-skating tour dominates the news as soon as there are a couple of freezing days, with assessments of how thick the ice is on the waterways. If conditions are right, this most extreme of skating events takes place. The last time was in 1997.
GEERT WILDERS: The Dutch firebrand politician has become an icon of the new right-wing populist movement across Europe and beyond.
HOLLAND: This is the name for the two populous provinces in the west - and for the Dutch football team. Residents of the other 10 provinces tolerate it the way the Welsh put up with being called English.
INDONESIAN RIJSTTAFEL: The best item on the menu in a Dutch restaurant. Indonesia was once a Dutch colony.
JENEVER: The Dutch have a whole string of names for gin, their national strong drink. Among them are "vaderlantje" (little fatherland), "ouwe angst" (old fear) and "jonge klare" (young white spirit).
LEKKER: An adjective that roughly translates to "tasty" or "yummy" and applies to everything: the weather, sex, music and food.
MAXIMA: Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has the courtesy title of "Queen," but it's her husband Willem-Alexander who wears the crown.
NORTH SEA: The biggest threat to the Netherlands - after the Germans to the east and the Belgians to the south.
ORANGE: Name of the royal family - and the football team - derived from a long-defunct French principality that once belonged to the family.
POLDER: Land that once was under water and has been drained. It is also a term given to Dutch consensus politics of the last century.
RIJKSMUSEUM: The museum in Amsterdam to which every tourist makes a pilgrimage to see Rembrandt's Night Watch and Vermeer's Milkmaid.
SPEECH: The Dutch are inveterate word borrowers - from English, French and German. Nevertheless some are critical of immigrants who fail to master their own tongue-twisters in short order.
TULIPS: Unofficial symbol of the Netherlands. In the 17th century a couple of tulip bulbs could be worth the equivalent of a substantial house - until the bubble burst.
VINCENT VAN GOGH: Famous and
highly productive post-impressionist painter, well known for cutting off one
of his ears.
WINDMILLS: The traditional windmills were built to drain the fields and to mill grain. There were once 10,000, and now there are 1000. Their modern counterparts now protrude from the polders and the North Sea.
ZWARTE PIET: Black Pete accompanies St Nicholas as he distributes his gifts in early December. For years it escaped much controversy in Dutch culture, but his black face make-up now brings protesters on to the streets.
FACT BOX
Getting there
Emirates flies from Auckland to Amsterdam, via Dubai, with return Economy Class fares from $1689.
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