Netherlands - Holland

The Netherlands (Nederland), often incorrectly listed as Holland, is a state in Western Europe bordering on the south by Belgium, east by Germany and to the north and west with the North Sea. They constitute the main part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also includes the Caribbean islands of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

 

The capital is Amsterdam, but the government, parliament and the residence of the king are all in The Hague (Den Haag), where they also established the International Court of Justice and the recently established International Criminal Court. Currently, the sovereign is Queen Beatrix, while the prime minister is Jan Peter Balkenende.

NETHERLANDS

Holland is a region of the Netherlands with about 6 million inhabitants and is divided from an administrative point of view, in two provinces: North Holland and South Holland. In many European languages, the word Holland and are commonly those for or exchanged or used to indicate, on a completely false, the Netherlands in their entirety, similar to what happens in the United Kingdom which is often referred to as England.

LANGUAGES

The national language is Dutch, which is a Germanic language. Also in the province of Friesland and near the Frisian is spoken by around 700,000 people and is recognized as an official language of the Netherlands. Also in this region practically all speak Dutch or are bilingual.
Then there are the languages spoken by many immigrants, including Arabic, turkish, Chinese, Malay and other languages of the Indonesian region.
Finally, nearly all of the population has at least a good knowledge of English and has basic knowledge of French and German.

TYPICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The bicycle is one of the means of transport used and disseminated. Usually each family will have more than one front, and railway stations if they are chained to a hundred parking spaces to be used. The type of space, particularly flat is suitable for this form of transport convenient and non-polluting.

The Windmills are a characteristic feature of the landscape, used to distribute the water, draining the land and grind the grain. Those who remain are often preserved as monuments, some are still in operation.
The Netherlands is also famous for the wooden clogs of objects with very practical because the wet ground, rain and cold they are very resilient and keep their feet warm.

The tulips originate from Asia. Were brought into the Netherlands by the Austrian botanist Carolus Clusius in the seventeenth century, and their cultivation quickly spread across the country, focusing particularly nell'Olanda proper. Every winter, the Dutch farmers planting the bulbs in spring and collect the orange tulips, red, yellow, pink, white, purple, indigo.
The Netherlands (and in particular the Netherlands) producing a large variety of cheeses and exporting thousands of tons worldwide.

CITY

The main tourist attraction of the Netherlands is undoubtedly the capital Amsterdam. Among other cities, the most interesting from a tourism point of view are probably The Hague, seat of the government, Delft, famous for its ceramics, Rotterdam, which has the largest port in Europe, Utrecht and Haarlem. Among the smaller towns include Nijmegen, Deventer, Eindhoven, Groningen, Volendam and Marken.

LIBERAL LEGISLATION

The Netherlands has maintained a liberal and tolerant in many areas. The soft drugs are legal for adults, the case of tolerance are open to all prostitutes, homosexual marriages are entitled to legal, the procedure for divorce is short, abortion is legal, euthanasia is legal, even for children, but (in this case) only in cases deemed serious, and after judicial pronouncements.

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