The other side of the Netherlands

Potato fields and religion, a long way from the Rijksmuseum

Can you name a colour that’s indelibly associated with a single country? Try orange and the Netherlands (as I noted in my second video). An advertising exec would love that. The fact is the Netherlands, from the colour orange through to clogs, windmills and the tirelessly tolerant liberalism of Amsterdam, has an international brand stronger than any other country of its size.

That explains why so many friends and colleagues were blindsided by Geert Wilders’ success in the 2023 elections. How, I was asked, can a bunch of faultlessly liberal Dutch folk elect somebody so bluntly nativist, populist and anti-liberal? My answer was that you’re looking in the wrong place.

That’s why the first walk in my book ‘Orange Sky, Rising Water’ was in a part of the Netherlands few outsiders ever even notice: Flevoland. It’s a province almost entirely reclaimed from the sea, unnervingly flat and a long way from the Rijksmuseum. Here’s the first of four videos from what turned out to be a lovely and rather striking walk from the new town of Emmeloord to (the former island of) Urk:

For me Flevoland - and more especially Urk - was a great example of that other Netherlands that remains conservative, rural, wary of the galloping internationalism and multiculturalism of the big coastal cities, and distrusts the undermining of its way of life. Think Lincolnshire or Arkansas, think of Flyover-Netherlands.

Before the late 60s and early 70s, before John Lennon and Yoko Ono flew in to proclaim ‘Bed Peace’ in Amsterdam, the Dutch international image tended towards dour, parochial and grey. In the book I quote Albert Camus who wrote of pipe smokers watching the same rain falling on canals for centuries without end.

Being a football fan I date the shift from grey to orange to the early 1970s, when Total Football, exemplified by Ajax Amsterdam and the Dutch national team, exploded on the world stage. It was sexy, utterly modern and very sophisticated. Out went the cloggers, and in came Brand Orange. Amsterdam developed a reputation as a place where anything goes, politicians pushed progressive interpretations of policies, and Dutch fans danced in the streets wearing ridiculous orange costumes.

So the simple message from this first video from the walk across Flevoland is not to be seduced by the orange and the techno and what you think the Netherlands is. Look beyond that. And - if you have time - it’s to get on your feet in Emmeloord and walk to Urk. You won’t regret it.

More next week. NB my videos are on this YouTube channel, and here’s my new website, including maps of the walks, videos and books. I’m also trying to get the hang of Instagram and all that - but it’s a slow process.

Thanks for reading. (And if anybody has any advice on upping the quality of videos once uploaded to YouTube, then please drop me a line or scribble a comment below.)

PS the excellent maps were made by www.milesmap.co.uk.