About Us

www.andrerieu-movies.com

www.andrerieu-fans.com

Hello fan friends,

We are Ruud and Ineke Elshout -Cornelissen and we live in Den Haag (English: The Hague) in the Netherlands.

We have a son and a daughter and two

granddaughters and a grandson. We like to share our admiration for the Dutch violinist André Rieu with you.

We also like to tell you something about our

small country, which is only a pinprick on the world globe.

The photo was taken in Toronto, December

2007, the premiere of the World Stadium Tour.

Contact: ineke.cornelissen@kpnmail.nl or

ruud.elshout@kpnmail.nl

About us

About this website

This website is intended to share (parts of) video's and TV programs where André Rieu and the JSO appear. We want to make these performances available to a larger public and hence will provide English subtitles for all non-English videos.

If André has a guest appearance in a (TV) program, we will only show his part and any other relevant section. Copyright of the programs remain with the original publishers and up-front we ask kind permission to publish the video.

This website runs on a non-profit basis and runs on a voluntary basis.

NEDERLAND

written by Ineke, April 2008.

We live in the Netherlands (English), Nederland/Holland (Dutch), die Niederlande (German), Pays Bas (French), Paises Bajos (Spanish). All names refer to "low lands". That is correct! Half of our country is below sea level. Originally it was a swamp, where a couple of big rivers ran through. They carry mountain water from the Alps of Austria and Switzerland. And drain off the water into the North Sea.

Gradually people "stole" more and more land from the water, by making dikes around and pumping out the water. That newly made low

fields are called "polders". "Beemster" (in the

province of North Holland) is such a "polder".

It was reclaimed from a lake in the17th century.

The water was extracted out by several

windmills. Do you now understand why our

country has so many historic windmills?

Beemster was inscribedon the Unesco World

Heritage Site List in 1999.

The low grass lands are perfect for dairy farms,

producing milk and cheese. The black and

white cows are a typical Dutch breed.

Our flag is the red, white and blue, in horizontal lanes.

Fight against the sea.

Some parts of the Netherlands are 4 to 8 meters

Below sea level. Of course we still have dikes

and pumping engines (which replace the antique

wind mills). The most modern way to protect our

country against the sea is by technical wonders

as storm surge barriers. In case of storm and

high tide on the North Sea, we can close a few

big inlets, in the province of Zeeland.

Our most recent flood disaster was here in 1953.

About 2000 people and all the cattle drowned.

After that time our engineers designed and built

a few storm surge barriers. That's how we hope

To keep our feet dry in future! It seems we have a national computer alarm! In case the water rises three meters, the alarm tells the engineers to close the inlets. That happened in November 2007. I can assure you those were exciting days!!

Want to know more? Look under "How we keep our feet dry" (about the "Maeslantkering",one of the storm surge barriers).

Size.

The size of our country is 42.000 km ². It is smaller than the state "West Virginia" in the USA. We live here with almost 17 million people. Can you imagine? Too much people, too many cars, traffic jams all over! Without traffic jams, we could drive through our entire country within three hours. With traffic jams, it'll last a lot longer!

Language.

Our language is Dutch. Our neighbor countries are

Germany and Belgium. Our neighbors speak German

in Germany and Flemish and French in Belgium.

Belgium is a bi-lingual country (even three languages,

there is also a small German part). In history the

northern part of Belgium belonged to the Netherlands

and the southern part to France. That is why Flemish

is related to the Dutch language. And that is why

French is spoken south of Maastricht. You remember

André talking about d'Artagnan, the fourth musketeer,

who died in Maastricht, fighting for his French king?

(After he had breakfast in André's kitchen?) In the

15th century the French wanted to conquer the

Netherlands, but fortunately they did not succeed.

André's castle dates from 1452! That is before

Columbus discovered America, isn't that amazing?

A statue of d'Artagnan is in the Maastricht

"Aldenhof Park".

TWELVE PROVINCES

The way the USA is divided into states, the Netherlands is divided into twelve "provinces".

I bet you can mention two: Noord (North)-Brabant and Limburg. Our dear star violinist was born in Maastricht, which is the capital of Limburg, our most southern province.

The amusement park "the Efteling", where the DVD "André in Wonderland" was recorded, is in the province of Noord-Brabant.

The highest density of population is in the western part of the country, around the three biggest cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. This area consists of two provinces, called: North Holland and South Holland. That is why the entire country got the name "Holland". The province of Zeeland (Sea land) consists of a lot of islands and had the most recent flood disaster (1953). A couple of big rivers (several branches from the river Rhine) cut the country in two parts. People say: Serious Protestant people live north of the big rivers and jolly Roman Catholics (with their carnival parties) live south of the big rivers. There is a difference of mentality indeed. That's why André once said in an interview: Amsterdam is abroad to me. And that is why people from the crowded Holland provinces, experience the south of Limburg also as "abroad" in a very positive and relaxing way.

The southern part of Limburg is the only hilly part of our country. You know: our highest

"mountain" (Mount Vaals) is 322 meters high and we have to share it with our two neighbor countries. The village of Vaals has a Three Country Point, where Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands meet. Mount Saint Peter, where André lives on top, is 120 meters high. It is filled with caves and passages. During World War II (1940-1945) people sheltered inside Mount Saint Peter.

CAPITAL and MAIN CITIES.

Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands.

The Amsterdam Airport is called Schiphol,

Which no foreigner can pronounce!

Amsterdam is a very interesting historic city, started as a dam in the

river Amstel. The city has about a million

inhabitants. Second big city is Rotterdam,

Also about a million inhabitants. Very well

known for the big harbor Europoort:

the entrance to Europe by boat!

The Hague is the third big city, situated near

The dunes and the sandy beaches of the

North Sea. The government buildings with

the Knight's Hall and the International

Court of Justice are in The Hague. Isn't it special that Amsterdam is the capital, while the government is in The Hague?? The picture is the Knight's Hall (13th century).

Did you know that André had almost been born in Amsterdam? (Ineke was born in Amsterdam). André's parents moved from Amsterdam to Maastricht only ONE WEEK before André's birth!! At that time the Rieu family already had two daughters, Theresa and Cecilia. André was the first boy and the third child. After him, two more brothers (Jean-Philippe and Robert) and a sister (Gabrielle) were born.

MONARCHY

The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy:

Our first king was William the First of Orange

in 1815. For the last hundred years our country

is reigned by women!! Four successive queens

did a wonderful job. At the moment queen

Beatrix (70) is head of state. Our royal family's

name is "Van Oranje Nassau". That's why the

color orange means a lot to us. Queen Beatrix'

oldest son, called Willem-Alexander, will be

our next king. A king again, after a century of

women! Probably he'll adopt the name

"King William IV". The William name is a long

royal tradition. I think "William" is boring.

I would personally prefer "King Alexander

the First", but they never ask me!

Willem-Alexander was born in 1967 (41 by now).

He married a very pretty Argentinean wife

(Máxima) and they have three lovely triple A

daughters: Amalia (5), Alexia (3) and Ariane (1).

So after a king, we'll have another queen

(Catharina-Amalia is her full name)! Our royals have no political power but they play a wonderful part as ambassadors of the Netherlands. Our government is situated in The Hague and also the queen and the crown prince live in The Hague. The Hague is a royal city with lots of (also empty historic) palaces. I took the picture of the queen myself. She opened an open air exhibition in my and her home town: The Hague.

Interested in the history of the Netherlands?? www.wikipedia.com can tell you all about it!