This article is classified "Real"
Most of the Netherlands lies beneath sea level, hence the name. Are the Dutch bothered about that? Not in the least. Alright, they do build dikes and impressive water works to keep the water out, but they'll never leave their country because of it. Now, how come most of the country lies beneath the sea level? There is a popular saying that God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands. This saying holds a lot of truth. In years past the Dutch have built dikes around almost everything, lakes, marshes, seas, and then they pumped them dry and built houses there, in the polders. In fact, the whole province of Flevoland was made of polders. Flevoland lies in the IJsselmeer, the largest lake in the Netherlands, which once was a sea, the Zuyder Zee, before they put the Afsluitdike between Noord-Holland and Friesland. As a result of this the Netherlands are filled with all kinds of water ways, from the small but well filled ditches around the many pastures, to the large rivers. The Netherlands are in fact the sewer of Europe. Two large rivers, the Rhine (Rijn) and the Meuse (Maas), wind their ways through Switzerland, Germany, France and Belgium before they reach the Low Lands filled with the chemical waste products of many a foreign factory. Recently, due to heavy rainfall and the canalisation of the rivers in all the aforementioned countries, the Meuse and the Rhine were filled beyond their limit. The Meuss flooded a lot of land in Zuid-Limburg, and the Rhine and all the rivers it turns into in the Dutch delta, threatened to burst a couple of dikes, so some 250,000 people were evacuated from those areas. Thanks to a lot of extra effort no dikes burst. In all countries concerned, plans are being developed to prevent this from happening ever again. To summarize the above: the Netherlands are actually one big river delta. To say more, there are no mountains at all in the Netherlands, unless you want to be so broad minded to call the highest point in Zuid-Limburg (a bit more than 110 metres above sea level) a mountain. The Netherlands are divided into 12 provinces; some of them I've mentioned above. There are some plans to change the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam into city provinces, but I doubt that will ever happen. These plans have caused other, much smaller cities and villages to acquire the same status; another fine example of "I want a better car than my neighbour's". Noord- and Zuid-Holland together is called Holland, so to refer to the Netherlands with "Holland" is to disregard most of the country. Holland is in fact the densest populated area of the Netherlands, with a lot of major cities in it. All these cities together plus the area in between is called the Randstad, translated as the Urban Conglomeration, which is almost what it is. I wouldn't be surprized if the Netherlands will become one large city in the future. I'll come back to the Randstad later on. Some cities in it are Amsterdam, the capital of the country, the Hague (Den Haag), the political capital, and Rotterdam, Europe's largest seaport. The Netherlands is populated with approximately 15 million humans, living in a very small area. This makes this country one of the densest populated areas in the world. That means that everything in this land has to be organized. And so it is. Someone once said he had never seen a country where there are so many rules, and where so many rules are broken. An absurd example of this is that criminals have to pay taxes on their criminal activities, and can even get refunds if for instance a drug run is intercepted by the police! The consequence is also that even the tiniest bit of the Dutch landscape is controlled, as you can well observe whenever you're riding around in one of the trains of the best organized railway company in the world (although some commuters tend to disagree with this last fact). Tourism. What the Netherlands have to offer in the field of tourism, is mostly the uncommon landscape, completely flat with an occasional windmill (yes, these cliches are true!) which in ancient times was used to grind grain and pump water, and of course the inevitable water. Further there are a lot of cities with a lot of lovely, very old houses and buildings in them. One thing to avoid whilst walking through those cities are street organs, the whining noise of which is a hazard to your mental health, not to mention the appurtenant shabby people collecting pennies for it by shaking ash-trays to the 'tune'. There are also some amusement parks, of which the Efteling, in Kaatsheuvel, is the most unique. It has an atmosphere of fairy tales, if you just forget you have to wait in line for at least half an hour to enter any one attraction. Then we have lakes where you can rent all kinds of boats, and throughout the whole of the country there are countless cycle tracks on which you can tour on your rented bikes. Mind them well, because bikes get stolen here before you can say "Jezus, this saddle's killing me!" The flooding of Zeeland in 1953, when a high tide, a storm and weak dikes caused thousands of deaths, resulted in the construction of the delta works. Some people find them impressive, but don't go there unless you love kilometers of boring concrete constructions. Hitchhikers attention! Beer and drinks are relatively cheap and hashish is, or will soon be legal. I don't care much about these things, but you will always see some hitchhikers who do. I do advize everyone to try some of the local fast food, frikandellen, kroketten, bitterballen, kaassouflee, etc. etc.. You might even like it (and get away without a stomach ache). The Dutch have always been a trading people, and have as a consequence, in general, always been very tolerant. This you can still experience, especially when you're trying to learn to speak Dutch. Once a local determines from your accent what country you're from, he or she instantly switches over to at least English, if necessary possibly also to German, French or to maybe even to another language. This can be mildly irritating, even though it is their intention to please you. I'm working on changing this aspect of the Dutch, but my writing in English for The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Known Galaxy doesn't help much. O yes, one more important thing about the Netherlands, if you hadn't guessed it already: I live there.