Kingdom of the Netherlands country of heritage and future.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a state with territory in Western Europe (the Netherlands) and in the Caribbean (Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles). (1) Groningen (2) Friesland (3) Drenthe (4) Overijssel (5) Gelderland (6) Utrecht (7) Noord-Holland (8) Zuid-Holland (9) Zeeland (10) Noord-Brabant (11) Limburg (12) Flevoland The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 27% of its area and 60% of its population located below sea level. The Netherlands is a densely populated country well known for its traditional values and civil virtues such as its social tolerance. The Netherlands has one of the most free market capitalist economies in the world, ranking 12th of 157 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. The Netherlands has been a constitutional monarchy since 1815 and a parliamentary democracy since Stereotypes about Netherlands: windmills, tulips, clogs, delftware, Gouda cheese, visual artists, bicycles, polders and canals.

in the past: The Dutch Republic grew to become one of the major seafaring and economic powers of the 17th century during so-called Dutch Golden Age. nowadays: Rotterdam has the largest port in Europe with the rivers Meuse and Rhine providing excellent access to the hinterland upstream reaching to Basel, Switzerland and into France.

in the past: By the 13th century, windmills had come into use in order to pump water out of areas below sea level. The windmills were later used to drain lakes, creating the famous polders. nowadays: Windmills are still in use today. These modern windmills are used to generate electricity in an environmentally friendly manner.

in the past: Clogs symbol of old manufacture. nowadays: Philips of the largest electronics companies in the world with headquarters in Amsterdam is a mark of modern times.

The Netherlands is known as a clean country. The Dutch care about the environment. They even separate their rubbish. Paper goes into a separate bin, and kitchen scraps and glass are collected separately for recycling. Caring for the environment Almost every Dutch person has a bicycle and there are twice as many bikes as cars. The government encourages people to use their bicycles as much as possible or to take the bus or train to work.

Skating is one of the most popular sports in the Netherlands. Every winter Dutch hope that it will be very cold. As soon as the canals and lakes are frozen over, lots of Dutch people take out their skates. Sports Soccer is very popular. If an important match is being shown on television, there’s hardly anybody on the street. When the Dutch national soccer team goes abroad, thousands of fans travel along to watch them play. You can easily recognise them by their orange hats and clothes.

The Netherlands has had many well-known painters. The 17th century, when the Dutch republic was prosperous, was the age of the "Dutch Masters", such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruysdael and many others. Famous Dutch painters of the 19th and 20th century were Vincent van Gogh and Piet Mondriaan.

Delta Works The Delta Works are a series of constructions built between 1950 and 1997 in the southwest of the Netherlands to protect a large area of land around the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta from the sea. The works consist of dams, sluices, locks, dikes, and storm surge barriers. The aim of the dams, sluices, and storm surge barriers was to shorten the Dutch coastline, thus reducing the number of dikes that had to be raised.

Did you know that you'll find flowers in almost every Dutch living room? by Ewa Antonowicz (Vb) with little help of her father and