Finally found some time to do this.
Was not in Netherlands before this. Just crossed with car in 1998 without stepping out there - and also visited shortly one beach there from Belgium.
Now I was there for one week. Note that I am environmentalist thus some pictures here would be environment related.

http://zhenghe.tripod.com/maps/netherlands.jpg
The country is two times smaller than Latvia - 34 th km2. But there are living 16,4 mio people - 7 times more than in Latvia!!! If there is developed country in the world, then it is Netherlands. Recently their GDP was bigger than Russia's GDP. Nearly all the landscape in the country is man-shaped and reshaped.

Here we go on:
1. Amsterdam Central Station. Just looking at the exterior of this building you start to understand how rich are Netherlands with architecture. Unfortunately inside the station looked worse than the worst stations in my country - but Sun also has got some spots btw. In general Netherlands is far more civilised and ordered than Latvia.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamcentrstacijasaule4okt04.jpg
2. Damrak, Amsterdam - busy street near station. Low floor tram. This is comparatively old sample, they have got newer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/AmsterdamDamrak4okt04.jpg
3. Amsterdam as fairy-tale books show it.
In Netherlands they use the clay from the former sea bed to make bricks. The bricks are processed in higher temperature as in Latvia - this makes them far more time-resistant but with less warmth isolation capabilities. The winters in Netherlands are warm and they can afford it. As a result new brick houses are very hard to distinguish from 300 years old buildings - the material looks exactly the same.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamvecasmajas4okt04.jpg
4. Amsterdam - this time from adult "fairy-tale book". Near the same building from the previous picture, only looking a little down. Such dancing women appear in some windows here in Riga too - have to say that it is both sad and interesting
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamsieviete4okt04.jpg
5. Bikes are ruling the central part of the city - it is even hard to walk there.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdvecpilseta4okt04.jpg
6. State museum. One more beautiful and enormous building. The waterbody in front - just shallow, artificial pool but looks very fine. I went to Van Gogh museum and was very happy with it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdvalstsmuz4okt04.jpg
7. It seems that the old buildings are built on the wooden piles, which are rotting now and causing the settling of the buildings.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdkanalaeekas4okt04.jpg
8. If you have any doubts - believe me - Amsterdam has got very very very many channels. There are also several of these ornate towers in older part of the city. Unfortunately in haste have not found what are they but most likely - rebuilt former fortification towers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdkanaals4okt04.jpg
9. Bridges... bridges. Many bridges had tram stops on them, cars were parked on bridges. Something unimaginable according to our traffic rules.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterddaudzitilti4okt04.jpg
10. Local, Amsterdam version of Art Deco. Very rich and ornate although not always beautiful. I liked it very much anyway.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/AmsterdArtDeco4okt04.jpg
11. Tuschinski cinema from 1920ies - still serving as cinema. Very ornate inside.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/AmsterdArtDecokino4okt04.jpg
12. Art Deco style sculpture. The city is very very rich with ornamentation.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdskulpt24okt04.jpg
13. Interesting chap angling in one of the channels near Botanical Gardens.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdmakskern4okt04.jpg
14. Amsterdam currently is building very much - much more than Baltic capitals today. Here appear lots of modern architecture. Nemo - popular science center designed by Renzo Piano. It is built over the entrance of tunnel. The roof is available for the public... but the building was closed.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/AmsterdNemo24okt04.jpg

I visited also northern part of the country - Friesland. Went with the ship over Waddenzee to Ameland island.

15. Ferry going to Ameland island.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandpraamis6okt04.jpg
16. Waddenzee - interesting phenomenon. Very shallow sea with muddy water. In this sea several large European rivers bring fertile soil. Dutch people for centuries are "stealing" the area of this sea with dams to acquire new, ultra-fertile land.
In the background - Ameland island.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/WaddenzeepieAmeland6okt04.jpg
17. Beach in the north-west part of Ameland. Sandy plain is some 500 m wide, strong wind continuously moves the sand over the wet beach. Very impressive view... but dangerous for photocamera!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandplatapludm6okt04.jpg
18. The same, only looking windwards. Notice the people at the horizon. Netherlands or sand storm in Lybia?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandplatapludm36okt04.jpg
19. "Normal" beach some kilometres further. You see also gas platform in the Northern sea.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandgazesplatf6okt04.jpg
20. Dune area. Air pollution changes the content of rain - in one year one hectar gets here some 60 kg of nitrogen fertilizers - at least got some 10 years ago. Now the air pollution has decreased and there are "only" some 25 kg per hectar. Anyway this has changed anything in nature. Dunes have overgrown with grass, many typical species are extinct or near extinction.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandainava6okt04.jpg
21. Dunes near Haarlem some 15 km west from Amsterdam. At least one place where it looks like in Latvia :). Here Amsterdam gets 2/3 of drinking water - and water intake preservation zone has preserved this area.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamasudenskapas28okt04.jpg
22. At the horizon you see the highrises and industry. I think that it is in Zandwoort but may be it is Haarlem.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Zandvoortnokapaam8okt04.jpg
23. Spent just some minutes in Haarlem. I got impression that it is very beautiful city, worth a separate visit. Haarlem district in New York has got its name from here. In picture - inside the train station.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Haarlemstacija8okt04.jpg
24. Austerlitz, central part of Netherlands, not far from Utrecht. Napoleon and his people were influenced by the recent campaign in Egypt - and they commemorated the success of battle near Austerlitz by building this pyramid of soil. On top they placed sight tower. total height - some 35 meters.
In these days there would be 200 years of battle near Austerlitz. I looked at the sign near the monument - it said that in autumn 2004 the reconstruction of the monument should be completed. But nothing was happening there. Anyway beautiful place. All the location around Austerlitz looks like huge, beautiful park, extending for tens of kilometres.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Austerlitzpiramid38okt04.jpg
25. Flevoland - near Almere city. Sea was here in the beginning of 1970ies. Now - completely industrialized landscape. Not nice... but I imagine that it brings lots of income for many people.
The landscape in Netherlands is not much spoiled with windmills - they have thousands of modern windmills but these are not noticeable in nice places.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Flevoland9okt04.jpg
26. Visit to Oostvardersplassen - huge nature park near Almere. Incredible fertility of land allows 2500 large animals to live here. Words and even pictures can not tell it - you should go there yourselves to see these thousands of wild horses, cows and... can not remember in English that Cervus elaphus with horns.
Horns collected by employees of the park. These would be sold rather cheap.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Oostvardragi9okt04.jpg
27. And some animals without horns :). There is no problem to take picture of them - animals in large flocks are anywhere around you.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Oostvardbriezi9okt04.jpg
28. Afsluitdijk - enormous, long dike over Waddensea built in 1930ies - to control the flood and the waterlevel in Waddensea. Now that was an investment!!! Pictured from the middle of it - in the beginning you do not see the other coast.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Afsluitdijk8okt04.jpg
29. Heading towards Schiphol airport - some highrises. Did not take proper picture of the highest ones - Rembrant and Mondrian tower - but it is not hard to find them in this forum. In Netherlands they are not afraid to build highrises. Comparatively small cities have them - I saw some 29 floors high building in Leeuwarden, over 20-floors in Almere, Wageningen, Utrecht, other cities and towns. Unfortunately the designs are not very interesting.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/DebesskrAmstel29okt04.jpg
30. OK, I can try to say that there is constant chaos and havoc on-going in Netherlands, and you are lucky if drug-addicts and pyromaniacs let you fly alive out of it! But in fact here you see only the training. Some seconds later the fire was extinguished.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Schipholdeglidm9okt04.jpg
31. Rising over the Amsterdam. Much water. Very much. Most of the country is under the level of water. In Rotterdam even -11 m!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamanogaisa29okt04.jpg
32. Sunday morning. The pollution cloud has rised rather high over the city. You see Rembrandt and Mondrian towers.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdamanogaisa9okt04.jpg
33. Polder near Emmeloord from the air. Very rationalistic spatial planning from 1960ies-early 1970ies. Today in the "new lands" they use concept of multifunctionality - cities, fields, forests. Otherwise the life becomes too unnatural...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/pieEmmeloord9okt04.jpg
34. OK, in this picture I have photographed everything in Bornholm. No need to visit it anymore ;) (j/k, I would love to go there!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Bornholma9okt04.jpg
35. Returning home to Latvia. Och, even our most urbanized area seems like a wilderness after Netherlands. Here you see railway bridge and highway over Lielupe in Jurmala town.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Majorinogaisa10okt04.jpg


Final remarks
- Netherlands are incredibly dense. I several days spent in area considered to be deep countryside. No, it was not, it was the same city for me. May be the only countryside there is on the islands.
- Driving in Netherlands is both easy and complicated. Drivers are comparatively disciplined but the roads are quite congested. It is very very hard to orientate when you leave motorway - there are so many roads leading everywhere!
- People in Netherlands are ambitious and able to cooperate well. They together have completely changed the landscape of their country and nowadays are implementing very ambitious plans to turn it into natural place again.
- Food there may be complies with EU standards but in very many cases is not tasty. But there are many pleasant exceptions. After hearing how much pesticides they have used in recent past and still are using - I have some worries about genetics of this nation.
- Children there are allowed to behave nasty. Small boys playing football over the tables in restaurant (and even smashing some dishes) characterise this. But I found it to be funny, not disturbing.
- They are aloud to smoke in too many public places. This was quite disturbing!
- Amsterdam is dirty in some places. Not everything is exact in this country contrary to Germany - trains were late and even going in wrong direction (OK, we stop today in Amsterdam, not in Schiphol...). Not everything is perfect here. And I like this :)

You haven't seen the Netherlands until you've seen Rotterdam! ;)

Nice pictures. Remember to come back some time to visit some other places.

Nice pictures! The Netherlands is very different from northern Europe when it comes to geography :)

Our familiy spent a few days in the Netherlands on vacation many years ago. I remember driving in the outskirts of Rotterdam to be confusing, with highways in many levels leading all sorts of places. This when seeing the skyline in the background. Quite cool actually! And we almost got hit by a tram in Haag. This was on a very hot day, and hordes of people were heading to the beaches there. Chaos!

Super sniper - gladly will come once again to Netherlands. Really enjoyed this country and I do not say this about all countries.

Thanx a bunch for this great tour of the Netherlands:okay:

It is surely one facinating country in many ways. I always feel very much at home there, compared to may other countries in Europe. I also find driving a bit complicated there, specially insde Amsterdam. You better bring a co-driver and a good map if you want to use the car to get anywhere in central Amsterdam:D
Be sure to visit Rotterdam next time as Super_sniper says;)

Check out my Rotterdam thread (from this summer) if you want to, the link is in my signature:)

This is beautiful, Gatis! Amsterdam must be an amazing city, one of those I really want to see myself. Shots from the plane are superb (now this would be a bit offtopic, but maybe you took some picstures of Riga from the plane? This would be even more interesting :))

No, John, none of Riga. I was sitting in the wrong side. And weather was bad.

Great photos!
The Netherlands is one of the European countries that are on my must-see list (along with Finland, Norway and Spain :))
I especially like the windmill photo!

Very nice pics!
I have visited in Netherlands one, well only at the Schiphol airport. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/AmsterdNemo24okt04.jpg
Looks very interesting, the high- and the lowrise. :)

wow.... yeah, at first i was like huh, wtf no northern european country has Skyscrapers like that, then i was like: Duuhh.. Netherlands, central europe, Rotterdam = skyscrapers. Looks nice, very good pics by you. A weird thing considering Netherlands happend once to me, a dutch teacher came to my class, and wanted us to ask him questions, then i asked what does he feel about the huge amount of country beeing below sealevel... then he answered... well, only 1/12th or so in below sealevel. Ehh, my god, i can swear its alot more then that...

once again Gatis, great pics, i bet it was a very interesting trip!!!

Nice photo's Gatis, shame you didn't see Rotterdam. Also, the Amsterdam Arena area is quite nice to see as a skyscraper liker.

About these old canal houses: Some of them even are completely new buildings behind the front part, built in like past 20 years. Once I saw how they do that - They demolish all inside of the bilding, and the front part is been held by special massive sticks. Then they build the new house behind it and you never even notice that the building actually is new.

http://img63.exs.cx/img63/7596/Amsterdkanalaeekas4okt04.jpg


BTW. I am working just around the corner from Van Gogh Museum and I used to work on the Damrak street.

Once I'll make a nice thread of Amsterdam on a nice sunny day...

nice pics...especially those from above. The contrast is huge between the artificial low lands and latvia....

Great photos. I especially liked your detailed descriptions. :okay:

Nice photos. What city is this?:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/DebesskrAmstel29okt04.jpg

That's Amsterdam Nightsky. :)

Oh damn, how did I miss this thread...? (Oh yes, I was just returned form the US :))

Great pics, especially this one :okay:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amelandpraamis6okt04.jpg

Nice pics. The Netherlands have many good features, it`s my favourite
Euuropean country.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/lecekte/Niderlande/Amsterdkanaals4okt04.jpg
Canals make city very lovely

Nice pic's. Have you been in Leeuwarden too?

comment on Picture 24. The pyramid of Austerlitz is already been renovated. But people are neglecting it again. There is very less maintainance (so all the millions for the renoveting are allready flushed through the toilet, as we say in the Netherlands).

Great pictures and interesting comments! :okay: Picture 17 is brilliant!