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Netherlands is located in Northern Europe, bordered by the countries of Germany to the east and Belgium to the South; the North Sea to the North and West. This tiny country of 16 million people is very flat and farmland can be seen in every direction. It's land mass has been increasing since it's inception as a nation over 500 years ago through it's ingenious water control system. Like in the Holland Marsh in Canada the Dutch have the ability to create dry land and turn it into incredible farm land. We see in our travels many old cities that were once by the sea now situated far inland. We also traveled to many new towns that are being built on the new land. A lot of construction is occurring on the "new land" that was drained a few decades ago including new rail lines. We traveled about the country by train and car. The train system is highly efficient and very well maintained. We moved from Amsterdam to Kampen then down to Maastricht and onto Brussels by train. We explored the county of Overijssel by car; the area were my father lived till he was 7 years old and where relatives still live today. At the end of our time in Europe we traveled by train from Brussels to Kampen through Rotterdam and then directly to the airport outside of Amsterdam.
StoriesIn total we spent 8 days out of 40 in the Netherlands and it still wasn't enough. We visited the cities of Amsterdam, Kampen, Maastricht, Giethoorn, Raalte, Zwolle and Deventer. We toured around the countryside and visited the Castle Nijenhuis near Heino. Country RoadsThe country roads of the Netherlands are in good condition. This area is located near the city of Zwolle in Province of Overijssel. The old farm houses and other structures are passed down over the generations. These lands are kept quite clean and free from garbage and other eyesores.
Central CountrysideWe took a train from Amsterdam to Kampen. On the way this is mostly the type of landscape we saw.
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