Netherlands

From Wikitravel

The Netherlands (also popularly called Holland in English, in Dutch Nederland) is a Benelux country in Western Europe, facing onto the North Sea and the United Kingdom and bordered on land by Germany and Belgium. The people, language and culture of the Netherlands are referred to as "Dutch".

Table of contents

1 Regions 2 Cities 3 Other destinations 4 Understand 5 Talk 6 Get in 6.1 By boat 6.2 By bus 6.3 By plane 6.4 By train 6.4.1 France and Belgium 6.4.2 Germany 6.5 By car 7 Get around 7.1 By train 7.2 By car 7.3 Public transportation 8 Stay safe 9 Contact 10 External links

Regions

The Netherlands is made up of the following regions (provincies):

• Drente
• Flevoland
• Friesland
• Gelderland
• Groningen
• Limburg
• North-Brabant
• North-Holland
• Overijssel
• Utrecht
• Zeeland
• South-Holland

Cities

These are some major cities in the Netherlands.

• Amsterdam. Capital of the country.
• The Hague. Seat of the national government, seat of the International Court of Justice and capital of the province of South-Holland.
• Rotterdam. Home to the second largest harbor in the world. (Largest is Singapore.)
• Almere
• Arnhem. Capital of the province of Gelderland.
• Assen. Capital of the province of Drenthe.
• Eindhoven
• Groningen. Capital of the province of Groningen.
• Haarlem. Capital of the province of North-Holland.
• Leeuwarden. Capital of the province of Friesland.
• Leiden
• Lelystad. Capital of the province of Flevoland.
• Maastricht. Capital of the province of Limburg.
• Middelburg. Capital of the province of Zeeland.
• Nijmegen
• Tilburg
• Den Bosch. Capital of the province of North-Brabant.
• Utrecht. Capital of the province of Utrecht.
• Zwolle. Capital of the province of Overijssel.
• Alkmaar.

Other destinations

These are some other famous Dutch tourist sites:

• Keukenhof Very large botanical garden. The place to see tulips.
• Kinderdijk
• Zaanse Schans
• Muiden
• Wadden A shallow region of sea in the north, sporting a series of islands and much nature to be enjoyed.
• Volendam
• Marken

Understand

The Kingdom of the Netherlands was formed in 1815, though most of the current country had been independent (of Spain) in one form or another since the Union of Utrecht in 1579.

It grew to become one of the major economic and seafaring powers in the world during the 17th century, which is known as the Gouden Eeuw, or Golden Century, in the Netherlands. During this period, many colonies were founded or conquered, including Indonesia and New York, which was later traded with the British for Suriname.

In 1830 Belgium seceded and formed a separate kingdom. The Netherlands remained neutral in World War I but suffered a brutal invasion and occupation by Germany in World War II. A modern, industrialized nation, the Netherlands is also a large exporter of agricultural products. The country was a founding member of NATO and the EC, and participated in the introduction of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 1999.

Talk

The national language in the Netherlands is Dutch. It's a charming, lilting language punctuated by phlegm-trembling glottal g's - though in the southern provinces and Belgium the language has a much softer g. Officialy the Netherlands is bilingual, as Frysian is also an official language. When travelling through Fryslan you will come across many roadsigns in two languages. Fortunately everybody speaks Dutch.

The hackneyed phrase "They all speak English there" is in fact pretty accurate for the Netherlands. Education from an early age in English and other European languages makes the Dutch some of the most fluent polyglots on the continent. Oblivious travelers to the major cities should be able to make their insensitive way without learning a word of Dutch -- if that's the kind of travel that you want. Dealing with seniors however, will probably require learning a bit of the native tongue, although a bit of German could help you as well.

Get in

By boat

There are three ferries crossing between the Netherlands and the UK. Stena Line (http://www.stenaline.nl) is serving between Hoek van Holland and Harwich, DFDS Seaways (http://www.dfdsseaways.nl) is serving between IJmuiden and Newcastle, the last is P&O Ferries (http://www.poferries.com) serving between Rotterdam and Hull.

By bus

Eurolines (http://www.eurolines.com/) buses serve the Netherlands.

By plane

Schiphol Airport ( http://www.schiphol.nl ), near Amsterdam, tries to position itself as a European hub of air travel. It certainly is the biggest international airport of the country, and a point of interest in itself, being the lowest airport in the World. Schiphol is located 4 meters below sea level.

From Schiphol there are excellent railway connections to the Hague, Amsterdam, and Utrecht and from these places to the rest of the country.

Amsterdam is nearby enough that a traveller may take a cab, although most travellers take the train, as it is a lot cheaper. The train station at Schiphol is located in the basement of the airport. Also, some hotels have a shuttle bus service.

By train

France and Belgium

The Thalys high-speed train ( http://www.thalys.nl ), which connects to and from France and Belgium, is a bit expensive, but if you book more than a week in advance it can still have a reasonable price.

For trips to Brussels or Antwerp it is usually cheaper - and just as fast - to catch the NS International trains, which run hourly from Amsterdam, via The Hague, Rotterdam, Dordrecht and Roosendaal. No seat reservations are required on most days - just buy your ticket and get on board.

Trains from Maastricht to Liege in Belgium run hourly, and take around 30 minutes.

Germany

The ICE high-speed train, runs to and from Frankfurt, from Amsterdam, via Utrecht, Arnhem, Dusseldorf and Cologne.

Trains run hourly between Venlo and Cologne.

Further north, there are trains between Enschede and Muenster every hour, and between Groningen and Leer-Weener every two hours.

By car

If you're coming from Belgium or Germany an easy way to reach the Netherlands is by car. The countries are well-connected by highways, and the trip should be comparatively fast and the route easy to find. Of course, it is possible to bring your car on the ferrie from the UK, but prices can be steep.

Get around

By train

As in most of Europe, but especially in the Netherlands, trains are by far the best way to travel through the country from one place to the other. It gives you the opportunity to enjoy the scenery while enjoying a smooth ride, and quite often it beats driving a car for timing. Just be aware that during rush hour (in the morning and end of afternoon) most of the dutch also rely on this mode of transportation for their commute - so it can be quite busy during those times.

Foreigners looking to travel by train in the Netherlands should look into acquiring a Eurorail Pass with the Benelux package. This allows for unlimited train travel within Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg over multiple days. Europeans, not being eligible for Eurorail Passes, should look into Interrail Passes for their discount train travel. If you want to travel around the Netherlands for a few days during the summer, the Zomertoer may be used. This pass gives you three days of unlimited travel. An add-on also allows you to travel on all other public transportation in the country.

If you're thinking of staying a longer time in the Netherlands it can be a good deal to get the "Voordeel-urenkaart", which gives you (and 3 fellow travellers) 40% off during one year, but only outside of rush hour. Price: 49 euro (as of 30 May: 55 euro).

By car

Everyone drives on the right side of the road. The speed limit in build up areas is 50 km/h, sometimes there are zones where there's a maximum of 30 km/h. Outside of towns speed is limited to 80 km/h (N-roads). On the motorways the limit is 120 km/h except on some roads where the limit is 100 km/h. During rush hour signs above many roads indicate the current speedlimit. On highways the speedlimit is 100 km/h. Your speed will be checked nationwide by the police. Drinking & driving is not allowed and there are many breath controls nationwide. A unbroken yellow line next to the sidewalk means no stopping, a broken yellow next to the sidewalk means no parking. Some crossings have "shark teeth" painted on the road, this means you have to give way to the other traffic.

When your car is broken on the highway, go to the nearest yellow contact point. This is the direct connection to the emergency and assistance services.

Road signs with directions are plenty, but having a map is useful, especially in cities where there are many one way streets, and getting from one part of the city to another is not always so straightforward. Becareful not to drive on buslanes, often indicated with markings such as Lijnbus or Bus.

Fuel is easy to come by. Along motorways many fuelstations are open 24/7. More and more unmanned fuelstations can be found, even along highways, selling petrol for a lower rate.

Parking fees within cities can be pretty hefty. When considering to go to bigger cities, such as Utrecht, Amsterdam, or even Groningen, consider going there by public transport.

Public transportation

To travel in the Netherlands you can use public transport. In the cities you can use the tram, bus and metro. Outside the cities you can use the bus and train. Travel information can be found at 9292OV Reisinformatie (http://www.9292ov.nl). Information about the trains can be found at Nederlandse Spoorwegen (http://www.ns.nl). For information about the strippenkaart, the ticket used in bus, tram and metro, go to OV-Info (http://www.ov-info.nl). Note that, although many travellers tend to buy them in buses when boarding, it is much cheaper to buy them elsewhere. You can get these tickets in many places, including bus stations, post offices, and some supermarkets.

Stay safe

Police, ambulance and fire brigade have one general emergency number 112. For non-emergencies you can contact the police on the national number 0900-8844. Police posts are located on the major railway stations, airports (Koninklijke Marechaussee/military police) and ferry terminals. The police is organised in 25 police regions and one national police corps. The national police corps (KLPD: Korps Landelijke Politie Diensten) has many tasks e.g. railway police and highway police. Uniformed police officers are dressed in a light blue shirt and blue pantaloons and may also wear a black leather jacket and a black hat. Police cars are white with orange/blue striping. Fire trucks are red with white/blue striping and ambulances are yellow with orange/blue striping. They all have blue warning lights.

Contact

The international calling code for the Netherlands is 31. The cellular phone network in the Netherlands is GSM 900/1800. The phone companies are KPN, Telfort, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile. The network is of a good quality and covers every corner of the Netherlands. There are not many public phone booths left in the Netherlands. They are most likely to be found at train stations. Telfort booths accept coins, whereas KPN booths only accept prepaidcards or creditcard. In cities they are painted bright green (KPN). Telfort booths can be mostly found near railwaystations. 0800 numbers are toll-free and for 09xx numbers will charge you by the minute.

To request a phone number call 0900-1313 (1,30 euro per call).

In many cities internetcafés are now operating. Also, many public libraries provide internetaccess.

External links

• Visit Holland.com (http://www.visitholland.com/) - official site of the Netherlands Board of Tourism
• Dutch for English speakers (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch) (from Wikibooks)

• Netherlands from Wikipedia