Wooden clogs. Head to any tourist area in the Netherlands and you will see them in the hundreds for sale. As part of the traditional dress of the Dutch, they make the perfect purchase to remember your holiday to the Netherlands by and will be recognized immediately by anyone as coming from the Netherlands. You can pick up a pair of clogs in any of the cities popular with tourists - there will literally be hundreds of stores in Amsterdam offering them.
The tourist industry has sparked somewhat of a frenzy in the clog trade in the Netherlands. The resurgance in the crafting of clogs over the past few decades is mainly due to the large tourist demand for these icons of Dutch culture. Approximately 3 million clogs are manufactured annually, the majority of which will be snapped up by eager tourists wanting to take a pair home to remember the Netherlands by.
Many people are still under the impression that all Dutch people wear clogs, which is why the Dutch are often refered to as 'cloggies'. In Dutch clogs are called as klompen.
In actual fact, the people in the Netherlands that still wear clogs are mainly limited to farmers and those that work in the gardening industry, such as in nurseries. The average Dutch person usually only wears clogs when working at home in the garden. The main reason for the decline in the clog in general use was the rise in the modern shoe industry which allowed cheap mass production of shoes in a wide variety of materials.
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Goed gezelschap maakt korte mijlen.
Good company on the road is the shortest cut.