that's fascinating. I've always had an obsession with small polar settlements and what it's like to live there so I'd love to hear more about it.
the mariposa story is beautiful too.
As for me, I was born in Amsterdam, lived there as a small child and uni student. The first house was one floor in a beautiful house around the corner of the old Heineken factory, idk how my mom found that for cheap.
For most of my childhood I grew up in a village close to Amsterdam, within cycling distance, so a suburb by international standards. It's typical pretty Dutch village in a polder landscape, there are at least 5 windmills in a 5km radius. This looks similar to my village:
It's a boring place to grow up though. In the Dutch golden age the area became a place for rich people to build country homes near the city and settle, and that's still what it is today really. I don't know much else about its history.