The Dutch are world-renown for their highly developed skills in the fields of design and engineering... And rightly so.  There's a saying that "God made the world; but the Dutch made Holland" -- which is, in fact, quite true as something like a third of the land-mass of the country is actually below sea-level, only made inhabitable by an elaborate network of dikes used to block out the seas and pumps (traditionally powered by windmills) used to keep the land dry.

But Dutch design and engineering goes way beyond land management.  A couple of weeks ago, Marci and I went on a marriage retreat with our church to one of the country's celebrated CenterParcs, in the southern part of the Netherlands -- and I was freshly amazed by the level and sophistication of Dutch design and engineering in my first experience in such an environment.  For those who have never been to (or never heard about) CenterParcs before, the best description that I can think of is that it's like an extravagant cruise-ship -- only using trees and houses and recreational centers spread out over acres and acres of land.  Each CenterParc is like a little "vacation village" -- completely self-contained, such that one would never have to leave the park's grounds.  Everything from grocery stores to bowling alleys to saunas to little "cabins in the woods" -- it's all right there, at the tip of your fingers.  They've seriously thought of everything.

The CenterParcs location that we visited had approximately 1000 bungalows -- with room for an estimated 5000 to 6000 people -- and yet the most amazing thing is that the park is laid out in such a way that it doesn't feel that crowded.  In fact, you look out the patio window of the place where you're staying, and you can't see a single other dwelling!  It's incredible...

Just like on a cruise, there's not just facilities available -- but practically every service imaginable.  You can even study to get your SCUBA diving license in a cold, cold lake in the middle of March!

And when I say that they think of everything, believe me:  they think of everything (the dog toilet below is just a case in point)!  It's absolutely crazy!  I still can't decide if this level of Dutch design and engineering makes me want to mock my host society -- or admire it... But it is, in any event, noteworthy.

But even since returning to Amsterdam after that week at the CenterParcs location, I've been looking around lately and noticing how incredibly extensive the thought and planning that goes into the most mundane aspects of life can be.

For instance:  the streets and sidewalks.  When I first moved to the Netherlands, I noticed a lack of asphalt and concrete (in comparing the streets and sidewalks of Amsterdam to the streets and sidewalks of cities back in Ohio).  To be honest, at the time I thought that everything was paved with stone- and brick-pavers because it had a nice, "Old World" aesthetic to it (bear in mind that I was, of course, a naive young American when I first moved here!).  However, as time has gone on, I've come to see that the pavers serve a very practical purpose -- because the city of Amsterdam (like much of the sea-side country) is built on sand.  Sand that is continually slipping and settling, such that street levels rise and fall slightly over time.  So when it comes to re-paving a thoroughfare in need of repair, all one has to do is turn up the pavers, pound the sand down flat, and lay 'em all back down again.  The same goes for accessing underground pipes and wiring and things like that.  The pavers actually end up being a perfect way to keep the streets looking and working well (though I still think at times that the city often has its employees tear up a particular section of street and put it back together again for no particular reason, other than to give them something to do!).

And then there's the example of the foldable bicycle.  Seriously.  I'm not kidding.  It sounds a little bit silly to an American -- but when you really think about it, in a country like the Netherlands, where the primary modes of transportation are bicycle and public transport (bus, train, etc.), a foldable bicycle really makes a lot of sense.  You can carry your bicycle around easily (and without having to pay extra costs to bring it on public transportation with you) -- and then it's always there again when you need it.

Again, there's a part of me which goes crazy thinking about all the manufactured "wildlife" (most forests here are planned and planted by careful strategy) and dealing with the elaborate bureaucracy that holds it all together -- and I want to make fun of this trait of the Dutch to so carefully plan and engineer all these things.  But then on the other hand, I don't think there's any other way that life would be livable (or at least not pleasantly livable) with 17 million people living on a land mass the size of Maryland without such meticulous attention to the design and engineering of every little piece of land.

In the end, I've got to hand it to the Dutch for being so clever with everything.  There's really something to be said for a society that can fold up bicycles and streets and oceans -- all with an ability to give me my own little "cabin in the woods" with a fireplace and (manufactured compressed wood-fiber) logs to be bought at the CenterParcs corner store for €1.99...