When I chose Utrecht, it was partly because of my curiosity about Holland and partly because of the memory of a day spent playing cards there, while we waited for the rain to stop. It was not raining; there was a very loud fountain outside our hostel. Experiences like that can affect your attitude to the weather. When I returned to Holland, I decided I would not worry about the climate. I arrived in August at the household of Erwin and Jolien in Harderwijk, with many pairs of shorts. The plan was to wear the country like a new set of clothes and pick up what I needed as I went along. The first thing I picked up were Erwin's five survival tips for the Netherlands.

No. 1 Survival Tip for the Netherlands: Buienradar.nl (weather forecast website)

Erwin and I ignore his first survival tip and head out for a cycle in the polder near Harderwijk, when Buienradar says it will rain. It is indeed raining, and my linen shorts are getting sticky. Through the blur I detect the spinning white propellers on the horizon. At least somebody benefits from the freezing wind off the polder. I start an internal monologue: The US is pumping out huge volumes of greenhouse gases that threaten to send the Netherlands underwater. The problem for the Dutch this time around though is that they are facing a threat from the unique environmental character they used to use to defend themselves: the water. We have reached the bar, finally. “Anyway, flooding the country didn't work in the War anymore, as the invader arrived by plane,” says Erwin. Erwin's colleague found part of a bomber engine when he was out rowing: apparently two American planes flew into each other over the water. Nowadays the only propellers here are spinning peacefully to pump the water in and out. The problem is, so the kids Erwin teaches say, that the new wind generators powering the pumps are unreliable; the gears keep breaking and are expensive to replace. I start to wonder if Holland is that well dressed for the changing climate.