h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

To Toilets:

The Dutch are notorious for being 's**t-see-ers'; among all the cultures on this earth, the dutch tend to look back after they have gone to see what they have done. It must have [i]something[/i] to do with genetics, but I haven't figured it out yet...

To Bikes:

Beware: the Dutch (or at least a significant proportion of them) have decided bikes are a communal property. If you leave your bike at the (train)station you have about an equal chance of finding it back where you left it as you have of finding it 'liberated' for someone else's ride back home. Again, genetics, I think.

To Money:

There is a saying which asks 'how did copperwire get invented?', to which the answer is: 'two Dutchmen were fighting over a stuiver (the little 5 cent coin made out of copper)'. This, as well as the fact that the Dutch used to sell dutch weaponry to whatever country they where fighting at the time (up 'til the 20th century), says quite a lot about the dutch.

But even so, the dutch are quite nice people, mostly harmless.

Hi, just read your Entry and it really made me laugh, especially the part about the toilet flush.
I'm not sure where you got your information about there being no plural form for "gulden" or "cent". It's "guldens" and "centen", although it wasn't used much in that form, which is similar to other languages/currencies, as in :"That'll cost you five dollar". Not that it matters much now...

The only thing that struck me as truly off base is that you describe the Dutch as being patriotic. That's about the last characterization I would use. It's true that they are proud of their country and especially about its proclaimed tolerance and open-mindedness, but they are far from patriotic in the chauvinistic tradition of countries such as the USA or France. The Dutch even have a national anthem which only glorifies other countries (like Spain) in stead of their own, go figure.

Would be pretty hard to really prove my point since it's more feeling than fact but still...

JAIB