10 Things I Love About Holland

1. Eating chocolate sprinkles (hagelslag) with butter on bread qualifies as an acceptable breakfast

2. Butter is its own food group

3. The bikes. They're everywhere and you can use them to get just about anywhere - day or night. The whole country is flat as a pancake so you never get winded going up hill.

4. The New Years Eve fireworks. The whole country lets loose in a ball of firey brightness for about 12 hours. Everyone and their mother has a stash they lite off.

5. The whimsical sense of style.

6. The church tower bells that chime the hour in many towns.

7. Van Gogh, Rembrant, Vermeer

8. The friendly people. Bless them they almost all speak amazingly good English and are also willing to indulge my poor Dutch.

9. The happy yellow trains that always run on time.

10. Amsterdam.