Bird Cams Around the World

How interesting all this info is! Thank you ladies, for the questions, answers & comments. I am very interested in various cultures, so this is just fascinating for me!

I had to laugh about your soccer comment . . . the same is true for about 90% of the American men watching football.
(I won't watch American football, but I do like to watch European soccer when the World Cup is on. )

It's too bad you had to stop gymnastics because of an injury - I always like to watch gymnastics when the Olympics are on.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia:

The All Saints' Flood of 1170 (Allerheiligenvloed) was a catastrophic flood in The Netherlands. Large parts of the Northern Netherlands, and Holland territories were overflowed. This is the flood that made the Zuider Zee. "Lake Flevo" was once a fresh water lake, but after this flood a sea channel opened a connection from the North Sea into the lake through 'Creiler Forest', and turned the lake into the salt-water sea known as the Zuider Zee. The Creiler Forest vanished forever beneath the waves.

Creiler Forest around the year 1100. The exact position of the forest is unknown

The sea area increased inside the The Netherlands and large peat areas developed, which were easily washed away.

St. Lucia's flood (Sint-Luciavloed) was a storm tide that affected the Netherlands and Northern Germany on December 14, 1287 (the day after St. Lucia Day) when a dike broke during a storm, killing approximately 50,000 to 80,000 people in the fifth largest flood in recorded history.
Much land was permanently flooded in what is now the Waddenzee and IJsselmeer. It especially affected the north of the Netherlands, particularly Friesland. The city of Griend was almost completely destroyed, only ten houses were left standing. (Griend now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griend )
The name Zuiderzee dates from this event, as the water had merely been a shallow inland lake when the first dikes were being built, but rising North Sea levels created the "Southern Sea" when floods including this flood came in.

Victims

The exact number of casualties is unclear, but some sources mention 30.000 deceased victims between Stavoren and the Lauwers and another 20.000 from the Lauwers to the Eems. Based on these accounts the estimate for the entire region struck by this flood is from 50.000 up to 80.000 casualties. This made the Saint Lucia flood, in relation to the total number of inhabitants of the Netherlands in that period (about 500.000) the largest storm flood of all times ever in the Netherlands. And makes it the 5th largest flood disaster of all times world wide.

* Map of the Netherlands in Roman times:

* Map of Central Europe in 1180 AD (pre flood)
* Map of Central Europe in 1360 AD (post flood)

History of the Netherlands: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Netherlands
On the right there is large list of links to more details about all kinds of things, language, peoples, migration etcetera.

I live in the far North of the country, on the island AMELAND: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameland

<--- The yellow marker is on the roof of my house.
Coordinates: 53°26'40.85" North and 5°46'35.97" East (To look it up in Google maps or Google Earth)
After WW II, (which ended a little later here on the island due to the fact that the Canadians didn't have time to come and get he German soldiers. )
the island's economy started to turn to tourism. Before it was mainly agricultural (dairy) , fishing and sailing. During the 17th and 18th century many men from this island were sailors with the VOC and commanders on the whaling fleet.
The name of the street I live is reminding of those days: "Commandeursstraat" which means "Commanders street". The streets that cross this one have the names of those commanders: "Hans Jochem" "Obbe Edskes"
They earned a lot of money and were able to build good houses, luxurious for that time. Many are still standing and well preserved.
During the summer months there are about 35.000 to 45.000 tourists on the island, in the winter we have the island to ourselves, some 3500 people in all.
I feel very lucky to be able to live in this little paradise. It's a birder's dream, because it is situated on one of the major bird migration routes.
Life is so much more relaxed here, probably because we are separated from the craziness of the mainland by water and always have that 45 minutes on the ferry to get to and from the island.
In Nes, the village I live in, there is a wonderful church, built by Pierre Cuypers who was also the architect of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Great information, DEF....and now that I know where you live.......

I agree. A road trip (oops, plane ride) to the Netherlands should definitely be on our list of places to visit!

You're all welcome! I have room for four guests . . .

LOL. If four of us came at the same time, which one of us would get to sleep with your adorable kitty Freya?

Since I mentioned it first, maybe it could be me?

I can only speak for myself, Susan.
I grew up with a Dutch and a heavy Dutch dialect and German.
So my second language is German, we live near the German border. (My German is better then my English )
English grammar we learned at school when we were 12 years.
Now the (young) children learn much more playful.
And yes, English a required course.

Furthermore, most music is in English and there are many English-language television programs. These programs are all subtitled (not dubbed, don't know dubbed is the right word?) That is mayby why we pick up the language quickly.

I think you're right, that this is the main reason why we Dutch have less problems with learning foreign languages. We know how those other languages sound, and with the subtitles you learn without even realising it
I too started learning English when I was twelve, in high school (?) I already could speak and understand ánd write German, because of the fact that here on the island we get many German tourists and it came "naturally" to me.
In school I also studied French and I graduated in all three foreign languages. German and English were compulsory, not sure about French.
These days the children start learning English in Primary school (for 4 up to 12 year old kids) in group 6 (I think) so at the age of ten.
Children have to go to school when they are five, but most start when they are four, the first two years are what you could call "Kindergarten".
Then after they finish this school they can go on to all kinds of education, schools that are training for a job, schools that prepare you for a University study.

Children living in the Netherlands are obliged to attend school.In general, a child goes to school before the first day of the month following his or her fifth birthday. Some 99 percent starts at age four.

The complete compulsory education lasts until the school year when the youngster is sixteen years (one school year runs from August 1 to July 31). After that the qualification requirement applies. The qualification requirement applies to young people not yet 18 years and still without basic qualification, a diploma from a HAVO, VWO or MBO2 training.

HAVO= Higher General Advanced Education
VWO= Preparation for University Education
MBO= Secondary Work related Education (meaning you get a specific education and training for a certain line of work, i.e. welder or electrical engineer or nurse or construction work)

Absolutely!
You can tell that I grew up in the North of the country, I use a "sharp" s and t.
In Amsterdam the accent is completely different from that of people living in Rotterdam,
the "snobs" that studied in Leiden really stand out with their accent, including our queen . . .
A person from Limburg speaks with a "soft" G, in contrast to the people from Holland and Friesland, who use the sharp version
(somewhat like scraping your throat, or as if you have something stuck in the back of your mouth and try to get it out ggggg, ggggg gggggggggg ).
During the second WW this sharp G was a way to tell if somebody was German, pretending to be Dutch and trying to infiltrate the resistance. Passwords always had such a sharp G in it. The ch in "Scheveningen" sounds like a sharp G and was used a lot, or so I have read.