Holland but officially from 1 January 2020 - the Netherlands, is a small but very attractive country. It is mainly associated with tulips, windmills and cheese production, but tourists come here primarily to visit the wonderful cities that flourished from the 15th to the 17th century.
The Netherlands is a country that has literally been ripped out of the water. It covers lowland and depressed areas that have been drained for development and cultivation for centuries. In this way, windmills appeared in this area, which were not used for grinding grain, but primarily to operate sluices and other hydrotechnical devices. To this day, you can see them in many places, both in cities and outside of them. The most famous windmills can be found in the UNESCO-listed village of Kinderdijk. In turn, near Zaandam is the Zaanse Schans windmill museum.
The other two symbols, the Netherlands is due to well-developed agriculture. The state is one of the main exporters of flower bulbs, and one of the country's biggest attractions is the Keukenhof Park between Amsterdam and The Hague, where about 7 million tulips bloom each spring. Cheeses are produced here in almost every city. The most famous places where you can see the cheese market and buy original products are Gouda, Edam and Alkmaar.
The Netherlands has been heavily urbanized since the Middle Ages. Today, former merchant and craft cities are the main tourist attractions. Amsterdam comes to the fore, which delights with neighborhoods of old tenements crossed by canals. The local museums boast valuable collections, including the Rijksmuseum, van Gogh Museum and Stedelijkmuseum. They have excellent art collections that attract painting lovers from around the world.
In addition to Amsterdam, tourists are eager to visit the Hague, Delft, Utrecht, Leiden and Breda, which have preserved valuable historic urban complexes. In many of them, as in Amsterdam, you can admire the canals that replace the streets. The port of Rotterdam, which suffered greatly during World War II, has a different character. Today, it delights primarily with modern architecture and a rich cultural life.
