NETHERLANDS Holland Going Dutch -Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the perfect place to unwind among the parks & canals

For Amsterdam hotels click on Active hotels

Amsterdam is often referred to as one of the most colorful cities in the world.

Where else do you find so many places of interest, famous museums, cozy pubs fun shops and (flower) markets?

Let our site show you a great many of the surprising things Amsterdam has in store for you.

Highlights beyond the horizon of Amsterdam

In the province of Noord-Holland you’ll find everything you imagined Holland to be.

Experience the classical Holland with the true Dutch landscape of windmills, dikes, flowers and green pastures

inhabited by the famous black and white cows. Evidence of why Holland’s delicious cheeses come in hundreds

of varieties! Stroll around the various romantic fishing villages of the past,

where many of the inhabitants still wear traditional costumes or take a boat excursion along the scenic waterways.

Don’t forget the lovely coast of the province or Noord-Holland with its impressive dune landscape and

long sandy beaches. Noord-Holland is the ideal place if you like sunbathing on the beach or swimming in the sea

. The unique polder landscape intersected by dikes of many kilometres in length make this province

ideal for walking and cycling tours, impressive excursions, a wonderful range of works of art and places of

cultural interest.

RecentHistory

The former Dutch colonies of Java and Sumatra, taken by the Japanese at the outbreak of the war, were ruled by a nationalist Republican government that refused to recognize Dutch sovereignty and declared itself independent in 1945. After 4 years of fighting and negotiations the independence of Indonesia was recognized at the end of 1949. Surinam became independent in 1975. The Netherlands Antilles decided to remain part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands while retaining autonomous control of its government. In 1953 an unusually high tide pushed over Zeelands sea defenses by a westerly wind, flooding 40.000 acres of land and drowning over 1800 people. The result was the building of the Delta Project, closing off the western part of the Scheldt and Maas estuaries with massive sea dykes.

The main storm surge barrier on the Oosterschelde was finally completed in 1986.

Reclaimed polders of Flevoland were soon built upon to absorb more of the excess urban population.

The squatting movement starting in the 1960s as a objection to the wholesale destruction of low cost urban housing and

that city centers should not become the preserve of big business. The squatters won the argument by the mid-1980s.

Urban planning had become a much more thoughtful affair with attention given to both the urban environment in

general and the need to keep people living in the city centers. All governments since 1945 have been coalitions,

with parties differing mainly over economic pollicies. The governmental system that has so effectively incorporated the disparate elements of a modern and divers state-Catholic and Protestant, management and union, city and country,

socialist and conservative- has earned the Netherlands a well deserved reputation for comfortable toleration.
The Netherlands and 10 other European countries voted in May 1998 to adopt the Euro as the new single European

currency. This continued Dutch policies that have been consistently in favor of European unification.

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