hidden europe 42

Dollars and cents

by hidden europe

Picture above: The west coast of Bonaire — an island in the Caribbean that is part of the Netherlands — with a view fo the harbour at Kralendijk, the capital city of Bonaire (photo © Lidian Neeleman).

Summary

Three of the 406 municipalities that comprise the Netherlands use a currency other than the euro. Yes, there really are three municipalities where you buy Dutch pancakes with US dollars.

Having little to do during the long winter evenings, we decided to bone up on the organisation of local government in the Netherlands. There are probably not a lot of folk outside the Netherlands who know that the country has 406 administrative subdivisions (gemeenten or bijzondere gemeenten). Among them there are three mighty municipalities, each with over half a million inhabitants: Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag. At the other extreme there is the municipality of Schiermonnikoog, a windy island off the Frisian coast which is the least densely populated of any Dutch municipality and the only one to have a population of less than a thousand.

Still with us? The really fascinating detail which we discovered was that three of these 406 Dutch administrative units use the United States dollar as their official currency. Having always perceived our Dutch neighbours to be fully committed to Euroland, it came as something of a shock to discover there is a part of the Netherlands where you can buy pancakes with a greenback.

Related articleFull text online

Of maps and men: Landranger sheet 57

With place names like Pendicles of Collymoon and Nether Easter Offerance, Ordnance Survey Landranger Sheet 57 fires the imagination. Maps tell stories, as do old men in pubs. Like the Tartan traveller we met in the Tyrol who tried to persuade us that Garibaldi had Scottish ancestry. From Baldy Garrow it is but a short step to Garibaldi.

Related articleFull text online

Exploring Baedeker's Switzerland

The Baedeker series of guidebooks showed a remarkable consistency in presentation over many decades from the mid-19th century. But many guides were updated every couple of years, so how far did the content change? We compare two editions of Baedeker’s Switzerland, one from 1881 and the other from 1905, and find that the changes nicely reflect new social and travel pieties.