Welcome to The Netherlands
We entered the Netherlands on the Rhine River cruise. Our first stop was truly in the countryside to see the windmills of Kinderdijk. The river cruise then ended in Amsterdam where we spent 3 days on our own. What we saw of it was certainly a beautiful country.
- Population 17,418,800
- Informally known as Holland
- History back to 10,000 BC
- Amsterdam is nominal capital and largest city
- Hague home to much of the government though
- Rotterdam is Europe’s busiest seaport
- Official Language is Dutch but virtually everyone speaks English
- Independence from Spain in 1648
- Kingdom est. 1815
- Charter 1954
- Has Monarch/ Prime Minister
- Currency is the Euro
- 6 hours ahead of the east coast
- Drive on the right
- Trivia – 25% of resident travel is by bicycle
- 18 million bikes 9 million cars