Caution - spelling in this entry is for phonetic use, not for accurate English spelling rules.
Amsterdam is in Holland and Antwerp and Brussels are in Belgium right? And all that is where? The Netherlands? No, not really. Okay, one thing you quickly learn as you travel in Europe. The Americanized names that we have learned for the cities and countries only creates more confusion, and certainly are not going to help you find those cities and countries when you go looking for them in the countries where they actually exist. This whole notion of changing the name of the locale to one's own language needs is really rather ridiculous. For instance, I don't live near Paris, I live near Paree and that's an easy one.
Amsterdam is called Amsterdam in Amsterdam, but in France they couldn't begin to know where I was talking about because they call Holland (don't get attached to that name) Pays Bas Payees Baz, and just so we are fair, sure we think it's Holland (finger in the dike, Hans Brinker, etc.) but it's not. It's Netherlands if you ask the locals, and really, shouldn't they be the ones to name the place.
For example, where is Firenzia? Pays Basque? Carolina de Sud? What is Anvers? Florence, Northern Spain and Southern France, South Carolina and Antwerpen. And Brussels? well in french that would be Bruxelles, the capital of Flanders, which to Americans is where? it's a part of Belgium, but not it's own country. Oh yeah, Holland, well that's like saying America, Holland is Netherlands. And what about Van Gogh? We say VAN Go. The Amsterdamians say van GOhf with really no f sound at all, but it's not an O. So why don't the rest of us say it that way?
Of course maybe this has to do with the confusion over the languages spoken in these areas. What do you think one speaks when in Amsterdam? Well, is that Dutch? Yep, or of course english, german and rarely french. Until you go to Belgium, that's french right? Not if you are in Antwerpen. That's Dutch, but an hour south and it's definitely french if you are in Brussels, but when you are outside of Brussels, that's definitely Dutch and adamantly so - in fact they couldn't even establish a government or a Miss Belgium without disagreeing about what language they were going to use.
Think it doesn't really matter? Be careful where you buy your map. Our maps printed in France didn't have anywhere near the right name for the exit we needed in Germany. And it doesn't stop at cities and countries, you buy a map in France or the US for Amsterdam or Brussels, the street names will be agonizingly close - but not exactly the same. So between Place Centrale, Central Parkway and Central Ave. is that a language glitch or the difference of a few kilometers?
