Going on a backpacking trip around the world alone with Kyun-S! Netherlands, Poland, Greece (14)

(25) Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy located in Western Europe. The capital is Amsterdam, which is stipulated in the constitution, but most of the state institutions are in Den Haag (The Hague), and it is called the Benelux along with Belgium and Luxembourg.

Amsterdam is especially famous for its bike paths and canals, where you can feel a free atmosphere and artistic sensibilities. You can visit the Van Gogh Museum, Anne Frank’s house, flower market, etc., and enjoy a canal cruise.

Dutch is the official language, and languages such as Limburg are separated into regional dialects, and it can be said that Dutch has quite a large dialect difference between regions. The main foreign languages are English, French, and German. It has a total area of 41,543 square kilometers and borders Belgium and Germany.

In fact, 20% of the country’s land area is the combined area of uninhabitable lakes and rivers, and the actual land area is 33,481㎢, which is slightly larger than neighboring Belgium, of which 7,000㎢ is land obtained through reclamation, and 25% of the country’s land is below sea level, so it is famous for being the lowest land in the world.

The name of the country itself is said to mean “Neder” Lands. The highest point is only 321 meters above sea level, and even this is artificially created. In fiction, when a natural disaster occurs, it is completely submerged by a tsunami. In addition, pollutants from the European continent are transported through the Rhine River.

It is said that it is a country with a well-developed environmental industry as a passage to the sea. In addition, due to the great flood in 1953, 1. After the tragedy that killed 835 people, a large-scale dam and embankment was built as a flood response project called the Delta Program.

It is said that there was not a single fatal person in the 2021 heavy rains in Benelux, Germany. In other countries, it is often said that roads cross waterways, but in the Netherlands, waterways crossroads, and it is not enough that canals are above the land

There is even a bridge over the Veluwemeer aqueduct, which is designed to allow water to pass over the road. In addition, there are not many forested areas, and as of 2002, only about 10% of the country is forested, but this is also the result of artificial foresting.

In recent years, in the cantons of Utrecht and Gelderland, you can see quite a few such dense flat forests. As for administrative divisions, in addition to the 12 provinces of the mainland of the Netherlands, it includes 3 autonomous states and 3 autonomous territories in the Caribbean, and the public federation is a guild,

Aruba uses Aruba Florin, Curacao and Sint Maarten use Caribbean guilders, and Caribbean Netherlands uses US dollars. As a Western European country, the average annual temperature is around 10°C, the average temperature in winter is 1°C~4°C, and the average temperature in summer is 17~19°C.

Due to the humid westerly winds + flat terrain + advanced agricultural technology, the population density is overwhelming, but the food self-sufficiency rate is as high as that of France. However, due to the unpredictable weather of autumn ~ winter, many people complain of depression, and perhaps because of this, the Netherlands, along with Scandinavian countries,

It ranks among the top in the world in terms of coffee consumption. Apparently, it is a little farther away than major tourist countries such as Germany, France, and Italy, and it can be said that it is not a big city where you can stay for a few days like London and Paris.

However, since it is a country that has developed over a long history, you can see historic cultural assets everywhere, and the unique scenery created by the geographical characteristics of the narrow land and canals attract many tourists every year. The flower industry centered on tulips is also famous,

In spring and summer, many people go to the large gardens like Keukenhof to see the flowers, and in other places, like Alkmaar, the cheese market is famous. And the windmill, which is a representative symbol of the Netherlands, has also been used as a mill for grinding grain using the abundant wind power of the Netherlands since ancient times.

If you go to Zaanse Schans in the north or Kinderdijk near Rotterdam, you can see windmills lined up in the green fields, and some of them can go inside to see their structures.

In addition, it is the tallest country in the world (184 cm for men and 169 cm for women), and it was not that big until the 19th century, but it continued to grow as nutritional conditions improved rapidly after World War II, and it is said that it has become the tallest country it is now.

Therefore, the relative height gap between middle-aged people, the elderly, and young people is quite large, and the obesity rate is relatively lower than that of other Western European countries. And in the process of independence of colonies that were much larger than their own, many colonists immigrated to the country.

It is one of the multi-ethnic countries in Europe along with the United Kingdom and France, and Indonesian and Surinamese cuisine are known as synonymous with affordable dining out in the Netherlands, and many immigrants have been coming in from Türkiye and the Middle East in recent years.