Evening star., 1938-07-03
HOLLAND IS TIRED
OF BEING QUAINT
Cities and People Modern,
but Picture Country
Still Exists.

THE HAGUE. July 1.-THE Dutch
are tired of being called quaint" The
American tourists who arrive in Am
sterdam or The Hague every summer
and Immediately express their aston
ishment at the complete absence of
wooden shoes and windmills are likely
to be met with polite but slightly sar-
castle inquiries-in good English-as
to how they ever escaped from the
U. S. A. without being scalped by the
red Indians.
For The Hague, like most large cit
les in the Netherlands, is a distinctly
modern and cosmopolitan city. Fine
buildings in the latest architectural
style abound, and excellent cafes, ve-y
much la mode, cater to critical
clientele composed of continental busi-
ness men, diplomats from all over Eu-
rope and sophisticated residents of The
Hague itself. The villa of the royal
family, in the environs, is as magnifi-
cent palace as can be found in any
country. and 1t is situated not beside
dixie and alongside windmill, but in
7 a beautifully wooded park amid land
scaped gardens.
The accessibility of the rest of Eu-
/ rope from The Hague is good indi-
cation of how far present-day Holland
Is from the average tourists concep-
tlon of it. Not only do fine roads LEAD
to Rotterdam and all Dutch towns of
any great size, but from the great air.
port direct connections are daily made
by spacious airliners with more than
90 OF Europes largest cities The
Dutch are not simple fisher folk,
= spending all their week ends putting
patches on nets. dikes or baggy
breeches. They are travellers as much
as the people of any modern conti-
mental country
y Fashionable Beaches Handy.
II he does not fly to Paris, London
OR Berlin over the week end. the citi-
zen Of The Hague is likely to enjoy
Z day or two of surf bathing off the
fashionable beach at Scheveningen, a
few miles away. Tourists who have
not been there seldom think of Hol-
land as land of seaside resorts, vet
scheveningen, with its broad extent
of white sand, excellent turf and su-
rerb accommoda tions for visitors. is
only one of half a dozen splendid
Dutch beaches which attract thou
sands every summer.
All this is not to say that the tradi-
tional appeal of Holland-its quaint
Eess"-has vanished. The visitor still
has no difficulty in discovering in Vo-
lendam or Marken picturesque old
Dutchmen with clay pipes and ludi-
crous pantaloons. as we'll as blooming
little girls with lace caps and wooden
shoes. Barges still float down innu-
hnerable canals. bedecked with bright
red tulips and cabins scrupulously
scrubbed by cheerful housewives.
Windmills Still Turn.
Windmills still swing their great
arms from one end of the country to
the other, and nearly half of Holland
etlll lies below sea level, protected
from the ocean waves only by great
dikes which must be constantly kept
IN repair by industrious Netherlanders.
But the tourist should realize that all
these landmarks" so often associ-
ated with the thought of Holland,
have survived in country which has
in very few respects failed to keep pace
with modern Developments AS mat
ter Of fact, these "old-fashioned"
things have remained because they
serve very practical purposes and not
merely for sentimental reasons.
The visitor who really wants to know
the Netherlands must see both aspects
Of this fascinating country-both the
modern and the traditional. One of
the best ways to do it is on two
wheels, and in choosing this economi-
cal method of transportation the tour
Clst is really going Dutch For, as in
Denmark, nearly every one in Holland,