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A visitor from Holland was chatting with his American friend and was jokingly explaining about the red, white and blue in the Netherlands flag.
“Our flag symbolizes our taxes,” he said. “We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bill, and blue after we pay them.” “That’s the same with us,” the American said, “only we see stars, too!” |
A visitor from Holland was chatting with his American friend and was jokingly explaining about the red, white and blue in the Netherlands flag.
“Our flag symbolizes our taxes,” he said. “We get red when we talk about them, white when we get our tax bill, and blue after we pay them.”
“That’s the same with us,” the American said, “only we see stars, too.”
Dutchman Johan Huibers had a dream that part of Holland was flooded – but rather than wake up and say, “Wow, that was a really bad dream!” he built a boat.
Johan’s Ark, as it has come to be known is a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark: 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high – it is half the length of the Titanic and it is seaworthy. Obviously a boat like that costs a bit of money to put together – it did, he pumped around $1.6 million into the three-year project to be exact. Luckily for Huibers, he is the director of a construction company and not hard up for cash.
These days Huibers is less concerned about surviving a doomsday scenario and more interested in turning his boat into a floating tourist attraction complete with replica animals (including an $11,000 elephant). He plans to float it down the Thames for the 2012 Olympics.