|
Amsterdam
See the Amsterdam City
Guide
Haarlem
Just 15 minutes outside of Amsterdam, Haarlem is a
quaint, enticing town near enough to the wealthy seaside resort
of Zandvoort to combine the two places into a pleasant
retreat from the city. There are plenty of coffee shops and
pubs to keep you well-oiled and the Teyler Museum,
with its drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo,
is the Netherlands' oldest.
Hoge Veluwe
The Hoge Veluwe is the most popular national park
in the Netherlands, with a mixed terrain of forests, woodland,
shifting sands, and heathery moors. Get around the park by
bike or by foot and see if you can spot its red deer and wild
boar. It's also home to the Kroller Muller Museum that
has a massive collection of Van Gogh paintings.
The Hague
The Hague has all the trappings of a capital city
- it's the country's seat of government and home to the Dutch
royal family - without the title. It's suffered from a rather
dour image for many years but it's got plenty of museums and
official buildings to visit. The second week of July sees
the enormously popular North Sea Jazz Festival roll
into town.
Utrecht
A bustling student town dominated by the Dom, the
country's tallest church tower, Utrecht is an old established
town whose character is morphing all the time. Its attractive
canal area is now full of busy restaurants and cafés;
the Catharijneconvent Museum housed in a fifteenth
century convent has the country's largest collection of medieval
art.
Maastricht
Situated on the thin strip of land jutting down between Belgium
and Germany, Maastricht, the Netherlands' oldest city,
is synonymous with the important European Union treaty
signed there in 1992 and is known within the country as somewhere
a little foreign. The city's origins date back to 50 B.C.
when the Romans set up camp on the Maas River banks.
Nowadays it's a good city for hanging out; the west bank of
the Maas River is the city's hub with an old pedestrianized
center while the east bank's Wyck is an old seventeenth
century area full of cosy cafés and bars.
|
