The wetland


All around, it’s water. What I have grown up with to think of as land is now nothing but a myth. There was Dubai, with its ‘waterfront’ developments made with reclaimed land. But this Dutch landscape is a whole other story. From the plane window I viewed a vast landscape of farmland with shiny dividing lines - which I realised were all water. The canals have been dug for miles upon miles to enhance land access, farming outcomes and to make land viable.


It’s so clean here also. Clean and meticulous. The houses are modest yet somehow also grand, and the windows go right out to the street, without much privacy. It’s clear that children, older people and students all live here together happily. Street after street of mixed housing, with nearby shops. Both plane and train journeys showed off a country that looks very much like the Dutch have got their shit together. Fields of colour, water lands and wind farms. Functioning public transport, clean airport, free flowing traffic.


I walk through the streets in the morning, trying to find the University. It’s not far away, but it’s very quiet. I wonder whether it’s school holidays but then realise it’s Easter Monday, and a public holiday. That explains it.  


I head to the supermarket. I’m like a kid in a candy store. There are too many products that I recognise from childhood. I buy droppies, cold meats, apple sap (juice) and some baked goodies. I discover the botanical gardens and walk around in the rain, under my orange umbrella, munching on my Dutch sweets.


I meet with Elsa today. She’s a second cousin on my Dutch side but I’ve never met her before. She picks me up in her ‘Batmobile’ and we’re off to see the tulip fields. Many other people have the same idea. It’s busy out there, and the cyclists have priority of the narrow roads. In every direction is a shot of colour. The bulbs are grown in these fields to make the bulbs stronger - not for harvesting the flowers. It seems counterintuitive to leave them in the ground. 


As we pass by the fields in deep conversation, Elsa and I learn that we both do a similar job for industry associations, both in energy related fields and with similar concerns about our countries. It is so strange to travel around the world to meet a distant relative and find that we have so much in common.


She will be getting married soon. We meet her fiancé Jereon and their gorgeous Chowchow doggie at the beach. This is ‘the beach’, Opa’s beach. Noordwijk aan See, close to Amsterdam and Leiden. And it’s a stunner! Sand forever, decent enough surf for the surfies to be out. It’s cold, but warm enough to sit outside with the gas fire going.


It feels good to finally be here. 












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