Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands. The city was founded on the banks of the Amstel River in 1275. The center of the city is Dam Square, on which stands the Royal Palace. Its building was built in 1648 and originally housed the municipality. In 1808, Napoleon wished to make this building his residence. Inside, the Palace is lined with white Italian marble, and its ceiling is decorated with paintings. Here is a collection of sculptures, furniture from the time of Napoleon, as well as paintings by artists of the Rembrandt school. Now the Palace is the residence of the royal family, where she rests during the New Year holidays.
The building of the Central Station was built on an artificially created island. On its façade are a clock face and a dial showing the direction of the wind. Oude Kerk Church is the oldest in Amsterdam, it was built in the 14th century. The panorama of the city opens from the 85-meter church tower.
In Amsterdam, you should definitely take a boat trip along the so-called “canal belt”. It is located in the central part of the city. The channels, and there are about 90 of them, were dug in 1610-1662 for the transportation of goods. On the islands between them, there are mansions with beautiful facades, many of the buildings date back to the 17th century.
According to Top-mba-universities, museums in Amsterdam are of particular interest.. There are about 50 of them in total, and 63 art galleries. The most popular museum in the Netherlands, the Rijksmuseum, is located here. It was founded in 1800. The museum contains paintings that were painted in the 15th-19th centuries, including works by such prominent artists as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Jan Steen and Vermeer. The Van Gogh Museum was opened in 1973 and is located in the center of Amsterdam. The museum has a permanent exhibition of 500 paintings, 200 drawings and 700 letters from the artist, as well as his personal collection of masterpieces of Japanese art. Rembrandt’s house-museum is located on Jodenbristraat, where he lived from 1639 to 1660. The Anne Frank House Museum is worth a visit. This is a Jewish girl, a native of Germany, who, after Hitler came to power, was hiding with her family in the Netherlands. Anna died of typhus in a concentration camp in 1945, after her death her father published her diary, which became known throughout the world, it is now exhibited in the Anne Frank House Museum. The multi-storey wax museum Madame Tussauds is very popular among tourists, where you will find figures of the most famous people of the past and present. An interesting city zoo is Artis, founded in 1838. More than 1,400 species of animals live on its territory, there is a planetarium, geological and zoological museums, as well as an aquarium. The Amsterdam Red Light District is known all over the world, where “priestesses of love” offer their services.
Haarlem is located 20 km west of Amsterdam. This is the main center for growing Dutch tulips, all of its surroundings are surrounded by flower fields. In the city itself, two museums are of interest – the Tyler Museum and the Frans Hals Museum. The Tyler Museum was founded in 1784 by the banker Peter Tyler. Its exposition includes works by Rembrandt, a collection of coins and all kinds of scientific equipment. The Frans Hals Museum contains works of art by this artist. Utrecht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands which was founded by the Romans. In the Middle Ages, the city was the residence of kings, and the local bishop had great authority in Europe. There are a lot of churches in Utrecht, among which are the cathedrals of St. Mikael (13th century), St. Pietersker and St. Jakobkerk (both were built in the 11th century). Also here is the Palace of the Teutonic Order, which dates back to the 14th century.
Rotterdam is the second largest city in the country and the largest port in Europe. After the Second World War, there were practically no sights left in the city. Now here you can see the oldest skyscraper in Europe “White House” with a height of 45 m, which was built in 1898. The city has a tall building Euromast with an observation deck at 185 m, this is the highest point in the country that you can climb. In Rotterdam, there is the highest Town Hall of the country – Stathaus, it is located on Kolsingel Avenue. The town hall was built in the middle of the 20th century. The city also has the longest drawbridge in the world – the Erasmus Bridge of Rotterdam, its length is 82 m. Be sure to visit the Old Port area and the Maritime Museum, which displays a variety of ships, port masts and a collection of marine finds.
In the vicinity of Rotterdam there is an area with windmills Kinderdijk. 19 mills were installed here between 1722 and 1761, making it the largest surviving mill area in the country. Now this place is under the protection of UNESCO and is included in the World Heritage List. The length of the blades of the mills reaches 28 meters. They are open to visitors from April to September, and every Saturday from July to August, 17 windmills are set in motion. The city of Delft is located 22 km southeast of Rotterdam. It is a center for the production of ceramics and a kind of hand-painted ceramics with blue ornaments. Not far from here is one of the centers of cheese production – the city of Gouda.. In the summer, every Thursday there is a cheese market. Cheese has not been produced in Gouda for a long time, but various varieties from all over the country are brought for sale. Of the “cheese” cities of the Netherlands, it is also worth noting Edam. This is an ancient city that is famous for its round red and yellow cheeses. There is also a cheese market where you can try or buy some types of cheese.
The Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands. It is located on the western coast of the country. It is the official residence of the Queen and the seat of the States General and Government. In historical documents, The Hague was first mentioned in 1242, and it acquired the official status of a city in 1806.
The main attraction of The Hague is the Binnenhof Palace complex. The Knights’ Hall with a wooden beamed ceiling is interesting here. Opposite the Binnenhof on Plain there is a monument to William I of Orange, not far away you can see the building of the Tribunal Ridderzaal, built in the 13th century, the medieval Gevagenport prison, which now houses the Museum of the Inquisition with a collection of instruments of torture, the country’s oldest city Passage of the late 19th century and the building of the Ministry of Justice.
The Queen’s residence, Heis Ten Bos, is located in The Hague Forest, and Noordeinde Palace is used for official ceremonies. In The Hague also worth a visit is the Municipal Museum, which has a large collection of paintings by Piet Mondrian, works of modern art and musical instruments, the Museum of the History of The Hague, Panorama Mesdag, representing the fishing village of Scheveningen from the 19th century and famous for its optical effects, and the open-air museum – Madurodam, where models of all the landmark buildings and structures of the Netherlands are presented, which are made on a scale of 1:5.
Not far from Madurodam is the Land of Sand, where sand sculptures are presented. The city has two beach areas – Scheveningen and Kaikdaun, where tourists and locals relax in the summer.
North of The Hague along the coast is the city of Leiden. Leiden is the birthplace of Rembrandt. Also here is one of the oldest Universities in the country – Leiden University, where Rene Descartes once taught.
Not far from Leiden is the city of Liss, where the Keukenhof gardens are located. Here in the 15th century the residence of the Dutch Countess Jacobe van Beijeren was located. In her possessions, they cultivated exquisite herbs and plants for the kitchen of the castle. Hence the name Keukenhof – “Kitchen Yard”. The garden was opened in 1949 and covers an area of over 300,000 square meters. m, where you can see numerous flower beds and fields of flowers. Here is the largest variety of tulips in the world. In order to see them in all their glory, it is best to go here from the end of March to the end of May.
Maastricht is one of the oldest cities Netherlands. It was founded in 50 BC. Romans, and its name comes from the Latin phrase “Mose Traektum”, which means “Wade across the Meuse”. It is located in the very south of the Netherlands on the banks of the Meuse River near the Belgian border. Here, in 1991, an agreement was signed on the creation of the European Union and it was here that the prototype of d’Artagnan ‘s musketeer, Charles d’Artagnan, perished.
The “old” city is located on the left bank of the Meuse. The main street of this part is Wikinburgstrasse, many cobbled streets branch off from it, where old burgher houses stand. The center of the “old” town is the Freihof square with numerous cafes where you can sit and admire the sights surrounding it.the most interesting are the two main cathedrals, the huge St. Servaas Cathedral and the red Gothic St. John’s Cathedral. Cathedral of St. Servaas – the oldest church in the Netherlands, built in the Romanesque style. It was founded in 570, then, in 831, destroyed by the Normans and rebuilt by 950.
In Maastricht, you can see the most beautiful Romanesque church in the Netherlands – Onze-Live Frauwe, which was built on the site of a pagan temple. Be sure to visit the Museum of Fine Arts. It is interesting not only inside, but also outside – its building was built in a modern style by architect Aldo Rossi.
Close to Maastricht there is a hill of Sint-Petersburg with fortifications and caves (about 20 thousand corridors with a total length of 200 km). These caves were formed as a result of the extraction of building material for houses. During numerous sieges of the city, the caves served as an excellent place of shelter for people. In addition, during the development of quarries on the hill, the remains of an ancient dinosaur were discovered, according to estimates, their age is about 6 million years.
Be sure to go to the southern part of the coast of the Netherlands, where the largest coastal dam in the world is located – Oostersheldedam. In 1953, a tidal wave hit the Zeeland region, flooding much of the region and killing thousands of people. The government immediately decided to build a powerful dam, which was built in the next 30 years. It consists of 65 concrete breakwaters and 62 steel gates with a total length of 9 km.
In the north of the country, the city of Groningen is interesting, which is known for its fortifications of the 14th century.
