Holland

The departure

In 1998 we got the opportunity to make a business trip in Holland. We were told that we would leave for 3 weeks. According to our experience, we knew we were leaving for double this duration, minimum! Actually, we went there 6 weeks, twice! I left the first time with other colleagues by the end of the afternoon. Business-class tickets, in Boeing 747, "upper deck" thank you! Everybody was amazed! Even the crew already knew our names! The big durty life!

I left without really knowing where I was going exactly! Ok, I knew that Holland was in Europe and most probably mixed in a melting pot of other countries. My first impression was far from reality! I discovered a wealthy country, rich in history and filled with hospitable people.

Holland is also called the Netherlands because the average ground level is below the sea level. Between the 10^th and 12^th centuries the Dutch built a dike all along the Northern part of Holland in order to prevent the sea to flood in the country and this way recovering a large quantity of land mass. We could also name Holland "the land of the wind". In order to remove the water already in, they used windmills. Today, Holland uses the wind to generate a part of its electricity. Holland is also well known for the tulips and many other products.

To my opinion, there is no other country in the world where the women are as pretty and beautiful as in Holland!