Oct 11, 2026
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Dutch Brass Bands Travel Guide
Photo by Vish Pix on Pexels During carnival in Limburg, you may hear a band that sounds like it has had one too many: wandering tempo, bent notes, a tuba lagging half a beat behind…
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
The Dutch have a word — gezellig — that doesn’t translate. It’s the feeling of a candle on a wet Tuesday. It’s a bar full of people who’ve known each other since school. It’s the brown café where the owner remembers your order and the rain outside makes the windows glow. You can’t chase it. You can only notice when it finds you.
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Photo by Vish Pix on Pexels
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In today’s email:
- The Love Netherlands Guide № 008: Dutch Brass Bands
- At The Café — Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
- Around The Web — Discover Your Cape Dutch Roots: How to Trace Your South African Ancestors Back to the Netherlands, Zaanse Schans Day Trip from Amsterdam: Complete Guide 2026, Rotterdam Netherlands: Complete Guide to Things to Do and See + more
- From Love Netherlands — Best Christmas Markets in the Netherlands (2026 Guide)
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Poffertjes — The Tiny Pancakes Sold From Copper Pans
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The Love Netherlands Guide № 008: Dutch Brass Bands
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During carnival in Limburg, you may hear a band that sounds like it has had one too many: wandering tempo, bent notes, a tuba lagging half a beat behind. This is not a mistake. It is the zaate hermeniek , the “tipsy band,” a deliberate send-up of the serious wind orchestras that fill the rest of the Dutch calendar — and it is only one corner of a brass tradition that runs deeper here than almost anywhere else in Europe. This is Guide № 008 in The Love Netherlands Guide series. Get the Full Collectible Guide (Free PDF) Dutch Brass Bands — in a beautifully designed, printable booklet. The Love Netherlands Guide № 008. Download The Love Netherlands Guide № 008 (Free PDF) Harmonie, Fanfare, Brass Band: Three Words, Three Ensembles In the Netherlands the catch-all word “brass band” hides three distinct ensemble types, abbreviated together as HaFaBra . A harmonie is a full concert wind band…
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At The Café
Café ‘T Mandje — The First Lesbian Bar in Amsterdam
Café ‘T Mandje on the Zeedijk opened in 1927, run by Bet van Beeren — one of the first openly lesbian bar owners in the world. The bar’s interior is preserved exactly as Bet left it: dozens of cut-off ties pinned to the ceiling (her custom for any man who got too rowdy), framed photos of regulars from the 1930s onwards, and the same long wooden bar her customers leaned on for half a century. It’s still a working café and an active part of LGBTQ history. Stop in for a beer, take in the ceiling, and read the small museum corner near the door.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
The Netherlands transforms every December into a wonderland of fairy lights, mulled wine, and hand-crafted gifts. Christmas markets in the Netherlands run from late November through late December, with some of the most atmospheric and unique festive events in all of Europe. Whether you want to wander underground cave markets lit by thousands of lanterns, explore Victorian cobblestone streets in Deventer, or browse artisan stalls along…
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Photo by Teodora Vaklinska on Unsplash
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Poffertjes — The Tiny Pancakes Sold From Copper Pans
Poffertjes are small, fluffy yeasted pancakes made on cast-iron pans with little round dimples, dusted with icing sugar and topped with a knob of butter. You eat them with a wooden fork from a paper plate, ten or twelve at a time, while standing at a stall on the street or sitting in a market square. They appear at every Dutch outdoor festival from spring to Christmas markets, and the smell of butter and sugar drifting across a town square is one of the most reliable cues that you’ve found a real local event rather than a tourist set-piece. A poffertjes pan can hold over forty at once — it takes about three minutes to fill a plate.
👉 Read the full story
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