De Leeuwenhof Blog
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As many dutch people have left their home country does that make them all anti-patriotic ? Keep on dreaming!
We do like Holland and we love South Africa!
In the guesthouse on "de Leeuwenhof" we get the question many times, asking why we left The Netherlands or Holland, as the old country is called often by the dutch themselves.
Many assume we left because of reasons, all implying we did not like it anymore or otherwise. How wrong can one be in our case.
For our family many other reasons than being unhappy were the cause of our expansion into South Africa.
For one, South Africa and especially the western Cape, is very Dutch people friendly, the language is nearly the same and puts a smile on one's face of recognition. The weather, cause of dutch complaining in general, is also fantastic in Africa
Furthermore we find many Villages named the same as in Holland, like Gouda, Alkmaar, Utrecht and custums are more or less the same and so on and even the street signs are in Dutch...sorry Afrikaans.
Then of course there is the mix of races of whom many carry dutch blood in their vanes but just look a bit different. In a way many of the locals feel like family and are familiar with our ways and behaviour and one feels quickly accepted.
South Africa feels like home to the Dutch and so to us. In a sense we have not left the Netherlands, but just moved to another part of it and we try to be good ambassadors to.
The restauration of our old dutch farm ( 1698) to its former glory keeps the memory alive of many brave who traded the low lands for the african lands and creating a little bit of home far away.
On every special occasion we have the Dutch flag out and if there is an event overseas, we celebrate with full colors.
Lets hope we clarified the questions for now.
Daan
Dutch national team played in South Africa june 2010...picture taken during the event at De Leeuwenhof Guesthouse in Paarl Western Cape.
We do like Holland and we love South Africa!
In the guesthouse on "de Leeuwenhof" we get the question many times, asking why we left The Netherlands or Holland, as the old country is called often by the dutch themselves.
Many assume we left because of reasons, all implying we did not like it anymore or otherwise. How wrong can one be in our case.
For our family many other reasons than being unhappy were the cause of our expansion into South Africa.
For one, South Africa and especially the western Cape, is very Dutch people friendly, the language is nearly the same and puts a smile on one's face of recognition. The weather, cause of dutch complaining in general, is also fantastic in Africa
Furthermore we find many Villages named the same as in Holland, like Gouda, Alkmaar, Utrecht and custums are more or less the same and so on and even the street signs are in Dutch...sorry Afrikaans.
Then of course there is the mix of races of whom many carry dutch blood in their vanes but just look a bit different. In a way many of the locals feel like family and are familiar with our ways and behaviour and one feels quickly accepted.
South Africa feels like home to the Dutch and so to us. In a sense we have not left the Netherlands, but just moved to another part of it and we try to be good ambassadors to.
The restauration of our old dutch farm ( 1698) to its former glory keeps the memory alive of many brave who traded the low lands for the african lands and creating a little bit of home far away.
On every special occasion we have the Dutch flag out and if there is an event overseas, we celebrate with full colors.
Lets hope we clarified the questions for now.
Daan
Dutch national team played in South Africa june 2010...picture taken during the event at De Leeuwenhof Guesthouse in Paarl Western Cape.
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