Quite a few Americans do have some sort of idea about the Netherlands and for those who need some background or trivia there is a great site with frequently asked questions about the Netherlands and there is even a site on the Internet about sports in the Netherlands, just to mention a few.

Some Americans have visions of the great Dutch painters Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh or pictures that come from the tale of Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates, a tale that only very few Dutch are familiar with. Quite a few Americans have read the moving diary of Anne Frank and come to visit the "Achterhuis" on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.

Some do even know that the painter De Koning, the writer Jan Willem van de Wetering, the movie director Paul Verhoeven, and the movie actors Rutger Hauer and Jeroen Krabbe, basketball player Rik Smits of the Indiana Pacers, astronaut Wubbo Okkels, gitarists Jan Akkerman and Eddie van Halen, and the Concert Gebouw Orchestra all come from that small country across the Atlantic. Some identify Holland with fresh flowers, some with Heiniken Beer or Grolsch Beer. Some know that a good vodka and the finest gin in the world, or actually genever as it is properly called, comes from Hooghoudt right here in Groningen, though some prefer Bols or Bokma or one of the numorous other brands. Some Dutch firms or partly Dutch multi-nationals like Philips, Unilever, Akzo and Shell are known in other circles where some Americans also realise that the Dutch are among the large investors in the US. Besides lots of expressions with the word "Dutch" in it that have a rather negative connotation, there is also a market for special Dutch products in the USA.