One of these days, I ran across this vintage Dutch tourist poster. It is unmistakably Dutch: windmills, cows, herrings...and a bright sun over a sea or a lake warm enough to swim in! Well, although some really hot days do occur in the summer, Netherlands is hardly a summer vacation destination. Anyone who has spent more than a year here knows that days like the one depicted in the poster are not the norm. In fact, summer months are usually more rainy than the winter ones and most of the Dutch travel to the Mediterranean countries for their summer holidays. All this gives the (admittedly well-designed) poster an almost surreal feel. So, now a copy of this poster is hanging in my room to remind me, when I get depressed by the winter weather, that I can look foward to a magnificent Dutch summer.
