What’s Benelux? Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg

The Netherlands – “Land below the Sea” Also Called Holland

Dutch Skating Canals

Dutch 2010 Gold Medalist Sven Kramer

“Crazy” Dutch Speed Skating Fans

Why are the Dutch crazy for Speed Skating? When you ask Dutch fans to explain why they get so psyched for this sport, they often leave you feeling even less enthused about it. "I like counting the laps," says Jeanine Renden, who along with her husband was wearing an orange wig with two lions perched at the top (like on the Dutch coat of arms). "It's exciting." Not nearly as exciting as her hairdo. If counting isn't your thing, you can always stare at the scoreboard. "It's every exciting to compare the times," says Dutch fan Eric Vanserstraadan, who was sporting two Dutch flags, one painted on each cheek.

Speak to enough good people from the Netherlands, however, and you begin to appreciate their love of the sport. Ice-skating began more than 1,000 years ago, on the frozen canals and waterways of Scandinavia and Holland. By the 1600s, speed skating became a useful form of transportation for the Dutch, who used their blades to travel between villages. The Netherlands doesn't get much snow, and there are no mountains, so skiing is out of the question. But it gets cold, and the county's frozen winter waterways offer ample opportunities for outdoor skating. "In Holland, kids learn to walk and skate at the same time," says Pierre Hogers, drummer for a Dutch marching band called Kleintje Pils, which travels to speed skating events around the world to fire up the crowd (kleintje pils means "a little beer," because when the Dutch get together to watch speed skating, there's bound to be a little beer).

Kleintje Pils has been entertaining Dutch Speed Skating sports fans for decades.

More than a quarter of the country sits below sea level, so flood control is a major priority. Thus, when canals freeze over, Dutch fans explain that skating on them is cathartic. We have conquered our enemy. Let's celebrate by running our blades all over it! Skating is so ingrained in Dutch DNA that fans talk about one particular race, the "Eleven-City Tour," with the sort of reverence normally shown by global soccer fans for their favorite teams. The Eleven-City Tour is a 125-mile skate over frozen lakes and canals in the northern Dutch province of Friesland. Since all the water has to be frozen at once, the race is hardly an annual event. In fact, conditions haven't permitted an Eleven City Tour since 1997; the Dutch fans clearly long for another one. On a piece of paper Doekle Terpstra, head of the speed skating governing body in Holland, draws a likeness of the medal that participants receive when they finish the race. It looks like a tiny leaf. "I finished it in 1979 and 1985," he boasts. "I am very, very proud of those two medals."

While other viewers of long-track speed skating may see monotony, the Dutch see rhythm, tension and athletic grace. "Boring?" asks Diederik Peereboom, a Dutch native who works as a consultant in Brussels, who was desperately looking for a ticket to the 5,000- meter event. "Well, we think your football is boring. They stand around for three hours for what, 15 minutes of action?"

So why do the Dutch love Speed Skating? -Cold winters -Flat landscape -Canals -History of skating from place to place -Cultural identity , _ ,00.htmlhttp:// 2068, _ ,00.html

Why the European Union?

The Economic Reason The “Euro”

178 of the world's 500 largest corporations are headquartered in EU countries. (HSBC, UK.)HSBCUK

Political Reason? Europe was at the Center of Both World Wars, E.U. has lead to political cooperation

E.U. Peacekeeping forces