Netherlands

The Netherlands is renowned for being unremittingly flat, with traditional images of canals, windmills and tulips complementing its new face as a modern European nation, so impressively demonstrated when The Netherlands co-hosted Euro 2000 with Belgium. Its eclectic past reads like a ‘who’s who’ of European nations as everyone from the Romans and the Gauls, right through to the Hapsburgs and the Spanish, influenced its destiny before the country finally emerged with its current borders in 1830.

It is easy to imagine The Netherlands as just Amsterdam; the nation’s capital city is one of the most visually stunning in the world, where you can also delve through centuries of history aboard a canal boat or explore the array of excellent museums. The Netherlands is far more than just its capital, though, with a string of impressive cities including Arnhem, The Hague and Rotterdam. Rotterdam has picked itself up from almost total devastation in World War II to emerge as Europe’s (and indeed one of the world’s) biggest port and a leader in urban regeneration.

Out in the countryside, any sense of monotony you may have is soon broken by stunning medieval towns like Utrecht and Delft. Holland’s main natural attraction is its wide swathe of coastline, much of it peppered with artificial sea walls and inland seas, as The Netherlands fights its never-ending battle with the North Sea.