Nederland, The Netherlands

[SimsPlanet2 7]

Hee allemaal!

My name is Mark and i'm from Dokkum, the most Northern city in The Netherlands. I always like to watch the CJ's on Simtropolis.

[Fallon144 1]

Hey all, Im from Weesp near amsterdam, Ill post some pics later (if I know how)

[Uumke 0]

never been to weesp or dokkum before...I only drove through Weesp one time...With a train I think

[RHMgerards 7]

i'm glad this topic is here. i think most foreigners have a totaly wrong image of holland. mostly they think we are farmers, growing tullips, that there are mills everywere, and everyone walks on wooden shoes. me personlay, since i'm from holland, I never saw anyone walking on wooden shoes for example!! and i hardly see windmills here.

Holland is a very modern country, and as seen from pics from rotterdam, amsterdam or the hague, it also has a lot of modern architecture and highrise. holland is just like any other modern western country. or what about amsterdam. when i foreigner talks about amsterdam (for what i had ever heard or read) they always talk about the drugs and prostitutes. like that's all that amsterdam has to offer. but now. amsterdam is one of the most beautifull cites in Holland. it's also sometimes called the venice of the north, because all of it's canals. Beautifull old historical buildings are surrounded next to them. and there's a lot to do in Amsterdam. there are some great museum's and beautifull buildings. and it's a terrific place to shop. with a lot of shopping streets or shopping malls.

i myself come from, Belfeld, that's sort of a suburb of the city of venlo, in Limburg. we just of course have all the comforts of a modern western country, and i don't think there's any difference between other western country's, execpt for politics and some typical architecture of course. at least that's how i see it. i've been raised that way.

[RHMgerards 7]

...   had no idea it was that long

[Meastro444 1]

Venlo has SUBURBS??? maahahahahahaha

sorry, i havent been there, but i think only the randstad has suburbs, not even the larger cities else in the country

[RHMgerards 7]

indeed, not really a suburb, i said sort of, a suburb

[paulvmontfort 617]

Parkstad Heerlen has suburbs

[ExiL3 10]

cool The Netherlands!

I have been to the Netherlands a couple of times, I really enjoyed Amsterdam a lot, and I remember driving and seein that exact skyline of Amsterdam (top page 1).

I also find the language kind of cool, to me it sounds like a mix of German and English, and some scandinavian words. I am Scandinavian my self, and I have lived in Germany for two years. Since I also speak English I often understand a lot of the written dutch. Though, speaking the language is something totally different. :S

take care,

[catweazle_touchwood 1]

I come from the town of Oss (yes you can call me The Wizard of Oss ;-) ).

[gladiooltje 0]

Nooit gedacht dat hier zoveel nederlandsers zouden zijn!

I come from Rijswijk (Zuid Holland), just east of The Hague, here are some of my pic's:

Binnenhof - Ridderzaal


Entrance Binnenhof


Skyline of Rijswijk (Zuid Holland)


Lighthouse of Den Helder


KLM taking off at Schiphol Airport


Schiphol Airport


Schiphol Airport from the air (copyright arrakeen.ch)

[Uumke 0]

well, in the Netherlands, there aren't really suburbs: More some smaller towns, that have been '' swallowed" by the larger cities.

And the Randstad nows the so called "groeikernen". That are some smaller towns, that are allowed to grow,as there is a lot of suburbanism. This wil prevent that the "Green Hart"" will get built full of houses etc.

Quite some Limburgers here

[Fallon144 1]

Well, the station (area) of Weesp is terrible, but the city centre is quite nice, beautiful actually

and yes, we do have the dreaded windmills

Its quite a nice city, its near Amsterdam, 't Gooi en Almere so theres always something to do (if you have OV jaarkaart )

offtopic: weet iemand waar ik de NAM kan vinden, zoek al tijden

[Gozer_Jep 0]

bovenaan onder modds and downloads. Dan staat ie gelijk bovenaan de lijst.

ontopic: what's the definition of a suburb?

[Uumke 0]

I guess a suburb, is a low-density-area of houses. I kind of a village, with a commercial center (not with the huge commercial plazas as in the US), but connected to the larger cities public transport.

E.G. Amstelveen has a subway line.

In the Netherlands, I don't think you really have suburbs. More something like "Banlieus"in Paris ( in a smaller scale). Look at Vlaardingen, Schiedam. They have the caracter of a city, not a village. and they have the public transport as tramways, subway etc.

But still difficult to say what a suburb in the Netherlands actually is.

[Fallon144 1]

bedankt (NetworkAddon (January 2007) For PC neem ik aan?)

ontopic: I think when people think of a suburb they usually picture the stereotypical american suburbs with quite large free standing houses and lawns and such. Due to the astronomical house prices in The Netherlands we do not have suburbs (nor do we have room for it) I think what comes close to the typical suburbs is Almere and Lelystad.

[sEAhAwk fAn121 0]

jeej! i love KLM its my favorite airline! 

<<---- as you can see in my icon it is a KLM 777

[RHMgerards 7]

almere and lelystad aren't suburbs, they're complete cities. the reason why they are so different, is that the cities were started around 1960 or so. (at least i heard so, since then flevoland (new province created in the ijsselmeer) was finished.) most dutch cities are hondreds of years old, and have a lot of old buildings. Lelystad and almere, have no old, historical buildings, all new, modern ones.

[ExiL3 10]

wow, I have been at schipol once, and I never want to land at that airport again, it is HUGE. Also the amount of traffic there, geeeeez :S

take care,

[simmy001 0]

Die amerikanen kunnen nog wat leren van de nederlandse architectuur, toegegeven wij in belgië hier ook wel

translation:

Brick houses rule! ^^

[Edit:  Basic correct translation- Those Americans can learn from Dutch architecture, we in Belgium can also.] Marc

[Uumke 0]

Well, I agree a litte bit, (nationalism, patriotism), but everyone it's own style.... everybody can learn from each other.

and Exil3, why wouldn't you land again on that airport? Is huge a problem? (I guess the US the only country where everything is big). And where there a lot of planes, cars...or...pedestrians?

[Gozer_Jep 0]

Almere is a sort of a suburb i think: many people from amsterdam moved there, because there was'nt enough room in the city. Almere may be a complete city, but suburbs are also sometimes complete cities, like i've seen there.

I think Leusden is a kind of a suburb of Amersfoort, and diemen and duivendrecht are of Amsterdam. In the area of Rotterdam maybe Capelle a/d Ijsel and Krimpen a/d Ijsel.

[Uumke 0]

how many landing strips has schiphol? 5 or 6? and how many plane take off and land in 5 minutes?

I thought that schiphol has 6 strips, 5 large and 1 small one.

[ExiL3 10]

Uumke: I think Schipol is one of the busiest airports in the world. It is not that I will NEVER land there again, it is just that last time I was there it was really difficult to get out in reasonable time (lol).

Also I am not from USA, I am from Norway

What I was trying to say was that Schipol is one huge airport, and that I mostly prefer smaller ones for my destinations. Though, I have also been to other big airports such as Frankfurt and London Heathrow.

take care,

[koekie01 3]

gladiooltje: I live in Voorburg, we're nabors

[JanYpe 17]

Almere and all the other VINEX locations do basically have the same function as a suburb.

Schiphol has six runways; five that are 3300+ meters long and one that's 2015 meters long.

[SoNell 0]

I also from The Netherlands.. I live in the village of Hoogerheide ( lit : Higher Field ). I love living here because it is surrounded by woods and you have a lot of scenic views...

This building is 'Kasteel Mattemburgh'( Mattemburgh Castle) ... It is situated along the main road between 'Hoogerheide' and the bigger city of 'Bergen op Zoom'. I see it every day on my way to school.

The next picture is an aireal (how do you spell it ) photo from Hoogerheide.. I think it's about 7 years old because the new mall isn't build yet on this one..

and this one is from the new town hall... it's a very modern building that serves as a multifuntional building with a library, sports facilities, town hall and a multicultural center..

For a small village like this (8,000 inhab) ... it's a very large building... The part you see on the picture is only the entrance

I'll try to make my own pictures to show you more of this small but nice village in the south-western part of the netherlands

[Uumke 0]

Isn't it the village where the kid was murdered?

I'm sorry, I thinks it's the only thing I know about youre village!

[SoNell 0]

@ UUMKE :

No you're right it was... it happened at my brother's school...It was a big shock for everybody here in Hoogerheide... specially for us because it happened 10ft from my little brother..

the shock still goes on..

[Shilka 0]

Hi all I'm from Heerenveen , a town in the north of the Netherlands. Since my town is pretty much uninteresting to show, I'd thought I'd post some pictures of some typical dutch water features instead.

To start near home, the most striking water feature you would find around my home town would be old peat winning areas (turfafgravingen). Most of these were used far into the 20th centrury. Many of these peat winning areas still exist around my home town, and most of then now serve as nature reserve, water buffer or have a recreational use.

Well, pictures say more then words I guess.

PEAT WINNING AREAS

Nannewijd, now a recreational area.

De Deelen, now a nature reserve and still partly used for winning peat (to be used as high-quality garden fertilizer)

Oude Veenen, nature reserve.

The next water feature I'd like to show is an old fortress, it's a redoubt with five bastions on a sandy ridge in the swamps near the Dutch-German border. It was completed in 1593, and it still exists untill this day. It's defensive canal's carve out a most striking water feaure in the north Netherlands;

Fortress

An old map of the fortress amidst the swamps.

The fortified village as it is now, the swamps turned to farmland but the town itself is still in original condition, with features like a windmill, a black powder storage, the original cannons etc.

In many Dutch cities you can still recognize the contours of old defensive structures like the Bourtange one, for example here on the city center of Leeuwarden;

Well, so far the water features near my home. Offcourse the Netherlands and water are like one, so there's a lot more Dutch water features to show off like;

Flooding defenses

The afsluitdijk.

Oosterschelde barrier.

Oesterdam lockcomplex.

Maesland barrier.

Okay, so far my pictures of the Netherlands

I hope you enjoyed them and maybe even got some inspiration for some waterfeatures in your simcity region.