One interesting thing about the Netherlands is how most of the holidays fall in the early summer. For example:
April 5 &6: Easter Sunday, Easter Monday
April 27: King’s birthday
May 5: Liberation day (public holiday every 5 years– 2010, 2015, 2020…)
May 14: Ascension day
May 24/25: Pentecost
And that’s it until Christmas. America has July 4th, Labor day in September, Thanksgiving in November… Everyone looks forward to the start of summer here, but it is all downhill after that! And then there’s vakantiegeld (vacation money), an “extra” paycheck equivalent to roughly a month’s salary which almost everyone gets in May. Of course, it comes from the taxes you paid the rest of the year, but yeah… vacation time!
Marco and I will be visiting Dublin for a week in June. Should be fun to finally see more than just the international terminal of Dublin’s airport!
On another note, I am hoping it begins to warm up here soon… the mild weather is lovely in the winter but during the summer it is easy to get jealous of other countries. The typical summer high here is (only) 65F/19C, give or take. Brr!
See more about Dutch holidays at this link.
