Netherlands

Overview:

The people of the Netherlands are special; friendly, welcoming and hospitable. Their pleasant nature and hospitality give rise to some of the finer hotels of Europe. Similar to their neighbors to the south, the hotel accomodations will range from the simple to the supreme and include castles, country houses and historic buildings. These hotel accomodations will be found throughout, from cities to towns to small villages.

When the Netherlands are mentioned one imediately thinks of tulips, dykes, clogs and windmills While these thoughts may not apply to the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba which are parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands they surely apply to the European portion.

The country is bordered to the south by Belgium, to the east by Germany and the north and west neighbor is the rugged North Sea. Almost half of this low-lying country is below sea level making the use of dykes a necessity in order to utilize the land. This would make the land below sea level approximately the size of New Jersey as the entire country is something less than twice the size of New Jersey. The capital city, Amsterdam, is not to be missed and should be included in any list of the great European cities.