Holland (The Netherlands)

Special note about Holland:
I didn't find Holland all that great as a tourist, but I think it would be a great place to live, for four main reasons:

  1. The Dutch are incredibly friendly people.
  2. The Dutch are much more open-minded than most of the world.
  3. Holland has more bikes (raw numbers, NOT per capita!) than any other country in the world, except China, despite only having about 10-15 million people.
  4. Holland is way ahead of most other countries in its computer resources. The system I use to send my email internationall (iPass) has two and a half pages of access points for Holland, as compared with about half a page for France, half a page for the UK, 4/5 of a page for Germany, etc. As far as I know, only the US has more. Holland was also the first place that I saw an "Internet phone-booth." I don't know what it's officially called, but this was a place where you could insert your regular phone card, and it would deduct credits (very few; it was like making a regular local phone call) and allow you to type out a letter on a keyboard and send your message via the internet. I think it would even let you surf the web. The only shortcoming of the system was that you couldn't RECEIVE email.

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Scenery

Flat fields with lots of cows, and not a lot else. In the spring and early summer, Holland explodes in color as the tulips bloom, and in the winter the canals freeze over, which must be spectacularly beautiful. The rest of the year, you better like cows, or else you'll find the scenery pretty dull.

Monuments

There are some nice museums in Amsterdam (I particularly liked the Reijks museum), and a few palaces and cathedrals you can visit. Other than that, I'm not aware of any outstanding monuments.

Weather

Beautiful in summer, freezing in winter, kinda rainy inbetween.

Expense

Holland ain't cheap. In particular, going out for a meal will cost a small fortune, unless you eat cheap sandwiches or something of that sort. There are campsites all over the country, though, so that's a great way to save money.

Food

Eating in Holland was so expensive that I never really tried to find any "authentic" dutch food. You can find pretty much any kind of food in the big cities. I stayed with a Dutch family who ate fairly plain-but-tasty food: good breads, nice cheeses, sliced meats, fresh tomatoes and onions, cereals and toast for breakfast, that sort of thing.

People

The Dutch are wonderful people. Probably 99% of them speak English (they say everybody does, but I met at least two people who didn't, or at least said they didn't), and they're mostly very polite. I found them very helpful when asking directions and that sort of thing, even in big cities like Amsterdam. I think they probably get tired of being asked questions about drug legality (it's NOT legal, but "soft" drugs are TOLERATED), but they'll still answer politely. In general, I found them quite hospitable, and though I didn't find much "to do" in Holland, I'd gladly return.

Cleanliness

Holland is a pretty clean place. 'Nuff said.

Terrain

Flat. REALLY Flat.

Road Conditions (for cyclists)

Holland is an incredibly easy, pleasant place to cycle, but for cycle TOURING, I found it totally boring. Fields, more fields, and even more fields. Lots of cows. Lots of rivers. Not much else. Roads are good, and in the cities there are cycle paths EVERYWHERE, which is really nice. Outside the cities, I found the cycle paths (they go many, many miles between the cities) annoying, as they wound around like pretzels, and I often found it very difficult to make sure I was going in the right direction. I would almost prefer to ride on the roads, but given the trouble they've gone to to put in all those cycle paths, I imagine that's probably frowned upon.