The
Netherlands is a country partly reclaimed from the waters
of the North Sea, and around half of it lies at or below
sea level. Land reclamation has been the dominant motif
of its history, the result a country of resonant and unique
images - flat, fertile landscapes punctured by windmills
and church spires; ornately gabled terraces flanking peaceful
canals; and mile upon mile of grassy dunes, backing onto
stretches of pristine sandy beach.
A leading colonial power, its mercantile
fleets once challenged the best in the world for supremacy,
and the country enjoyed a so-called "Golden Age"
of prosperity in the seventeenth century. These days, the
Netherlands is one of the most developed countries in the
world, with the highest population density in Europe, its
sixteen million or so inhabitants (most of whom speak English)
concentrated into an area about the size of southern England.
Most people travel only to the uniquely
atmospheric capital, Amsterdam : the rest of the country,
despite its accessibility, is comparatively untouched by
tourism. The west of the country is the most populated and
most historically interesting region - unrelentingly flat
territory, much of it reclaimed, that is home to a grouping
of towns known collectively as the Randstad (literally "rim
town"). It's a good idea to forsake Amsterdam for a
day or two and investigate places like Haarlem , Leiden
and Delft with their old canal-girded centres, the gritty
port city of Rotterdam , or The Hague , stately home of
the government and the Dutch royals. Outside the Randstad,
life moves more slowly. The province of Zeeland , in the
southwest, is the country at its most remote, its inhabitants
a sturdy, distant people, busy with farming and fishing
and hardly connected to the mainland. In the north, Groningen
is a busy cultural centre, lent verve by its large resident
student population. To the south, around the town of Arnhem
, the landscape undulates into heathy moorland, best experienced
in the Hoge Veluwe national park. Further south still lies
the compelling city of Maastricht , squeezed between the
German and Belgian borders.
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