In April 2024, I was blessed to spend two weeks in Holland on a Viking riverboat cruise. Besides learning that Gouda cheese is “wunnerful,” I eagerly soaked up lots of Dutch history. Since many family historians find that they have a family line going back to the Netherlands (proper name of that little country), I thought I’d share some of the Dutch history bits that I learned.

After noting the houseboats and the bicycles, look closely at the houses. This was called “the laughing row” because the buildings tilt to one side! And why? Because they are centuries old and because the ground is soft. Not all structures tilt, to be sure, but the ones that did surely did catch my eye. 

Which is straight, the trees or the house??????

I quite longed to go inside one of these “leaning houses” and see how they cope. Do the floors slant? 

While I surely did admire all the ancient old buildings, churches and government buildings, to me they all did need sand-blast-cleaning (inside and out). Centuries of grime shadowed their splendor.