Netherlands
The Netherlands lies on the North Sea, where three big rivers reach the coast. About a quarter of the country is below sea level, kept dry by dunes, dykes and pumps. Its flag has red, white and blue stripes.
“I'd land on the old lake bed, below the sea.”
- In 1911 the young Dutch pilot Anthony Fokker flew his homemade plane, the Spin, meaning spider, round a church tower in Haarlem.
- Schiphol, Amsterdam's airport, sits more than four metres below sea level, on the bed of a lake that was pumped dry in 1852.
The land
The Afsluitdijk, a 32 km dam finished in 1932, closed off the Zuiderzee, a salt-water inlet of the North Sea. The water behind it became the IJsselmeer, a freshwater lake. Much of the old sea floor was then drained. Flevoland, made mostly of this new land, became the twelfth and newest province in 1986, and part of it forms the largest artificial island in the world. The highest point in the European Netherlands is the Vaalserberg, 322.4 metres high, where the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany meet.
Getting around
The country has about 35,000 km of cycle paths, about a quarter of the length of its roads. Bikes are used for 27 percent of all trips, and in Amsterdam for 38 percent. The oldest railway line in the country, from Amsterdam to Haarlem, opened in 1839.
Food and crafts
Gouda cheese is named after the town of Gouda, in South Holland, where cheeses were brought to the market square to be sold. Gouda is also where stroopwafels were first made: two thin waffles joined by a warm syrup filling. Blue and white Delftware was first made around 1600. From about 1620, when supplies of Chinese porcelain were cut off, Dutch potters copied it. In 2017 UNESCO listed the craft of the miller, who runs windmills and watermills, as living heritage.
The capital
Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, but the parliament, the government and the Supreme Court sit in The Hague.
Fly over the Netherlands.
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City 17 of 21Amsterdam
The Rijksmuseum
“The houses leaned over the water as if they were looking at their reflections. Bikes were parked on every bridge.”
I'd fly through the passage, right under the paintings. Its keepers are The Herring Heron and the Windmill Giant.
The plane reaches Amsterdam from London.
