Irma

I live in the center of Holland (also known as The Netherlands) with my husband. As a kid I used to have pen pals and I loved it. I still keep most of the letters I have got in some treasure boxes.

I love to travel with my husband. My favorite countries are Norway, Canada and Switzerland. But my own country is also very beautiful and although it is small, there is lots to see culture wise and nature wise.

I love music from John Legend to Black Eyed Peas, but I also love to listen to the french songs performed by the dutch Wende Snijders and music composed by Edvard Grieg and Debussy.

I did not read much lately, but I loved to read books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Khaled Hosseini, Jung Chang and the dutch Joris Luyendijk. Those writers showed me other countries, other cultures and broadened my view on the world outside my own country and outside the Western world.

As a kid my mother gave me every opportunity to be creative and even now she gives me something to create with for every birthday and Sinterklaas (= a saint, and the party that goes with this saint, is a little like Christmas). One of the latest gifts from my mother is a little microwave kiln to create glass pendants with and I love it! I also like beading, paper with paint, markers, pencils and stamps, shrink plastic, polymer clay and sewing little things.

... to bake and cook. I love it when food looks pretty and tasteful as well. Preferable I keep it simple and with not too much ingredients, unless I am decorating a cake or cupcakes of course.

Things that make me happy are sunshine (I live in a quite rainy country you know), crispy white snow, bright colours, little birds, the sea, modern art, postcards, beautiful skies, a walk and being creative.

Such a nice idea to be surprised by happy mail some day and hopefully to put a smile on someone else's face because of a nice swap! I really don't think that the dutch sayings 'van ruilen komt huilen' (= swapping will make you cry) is true, on the contrary...

Post-delivery in Holland is reliable most of the time. But sometimes things go wrong. So please let me know if you did not receive my swap mail. In case of not receiving my swap mail, I will redo and resend.

Also good to know: I mark sent when I have put my mail in the mailbox. But because mailboxes are not emptied every day, the postmark can differ with the date I marked as sent on. For the other way around, it is good to know that there is no post delivery in Holland on Sunday and Monday.

One last thing: if you want to, you can send me religious items or themes. But I honoustly must say it is not something I prefer. Hopefully I do not offend you by that. And one other thing: we do not have kids, so do not send me childrens items please.

Amsterdam is a great city to be and I can tell, because I lived there for eleven years. But it is also packed with tourists (better in winter though). So after visiting the highlights and the big and wonderful museums in Amsterdam, you might consider another nice, old city. There are lots of them in Holland and the best time to be there is on a weekday, so you can take your time to walk through quite streets. Nice cities are for instance: Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht, Maastricht, Groningen and many more.

Holland is also full of really nice museums. Of course I love the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum, but there are many, many more!

In the Hoge Veluwe National Park, there is the Kröller-Müller Museum. It is the place where you can find the Van Gogh collection: the largest privately owned collection of Van Goghs in the world (not counting the collection of the Van Gogh family itself). Next to the museum is the museum’s Sculpture Garden, one of the largest in Europe. It is a fine combination of nature and culture this Kröller-Müller Museum in Hoge Veluwe National Park. And the best part is that if you take one of the free-to-use white bikes, you can enjoy the surroundings and visit the Kröller-Müller Museum. The collection varies from old masters to modern art. My favorite painting in the Kröller-Müller Museum (I did not manage to get a picture of the painting in my profile, but you can google it if you are curious): Eva Callimachi-Catargi by Henri Fantin-Latour 1881.

Then there is the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. Every year it stages 25 new exhibitions, which cover all kinds of cultural expressions. The Kunsthal is new, progressive and adventurous. There is room for all kinds of art: old, new and experimental art, photography, design and anything else you can imagine. If you are not a modern art lover or if you are conservative in thoughts, you might want to check the program before you visit.

Another fabulous museum and not to big is the Groninger Museum. Because it is in the most northern part of Holland and because it is not too big, it is an underestimated cultural attraction. See for yourself on their website: http://www.groningermuseum.nl/en. Be aware, if you are a modern art lover you want to redesign your interior when you are back home ;) …

Last I would like to mention a fun museum: Tassenmuseum Hendrikje. It shows 500 years of history of the Western ladies bag in a beautiful, historic canal house from 1666, located in the centre of Amsterdam. For everyone who loves bags and purses...

If you are planning to visit several museums in Holland, you might consider buying The Museum Card = Museumkaart. This card represents a personal pass to enter more than 400 museums in the Netherlands.

If you are visiting Holland one day, have fun and enjoy the culture and nature in my country!