The Netherlands!

First of all I want to introduce the Netherlands! The newest post is always at the end of the blog  (see next pages - older post, i.e. this is a bug in blogger!) Do not forget to visit my home page and my aunt's rural tourism near my home! The Netherlands (Dutch: Nederland) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with parts in the Caribbean. The capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. Today monarch is Beatrix. Today government is in majority formed ba VVD party (centre-right). The Netherlands is a geographically low-lying country, with about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level. Its total area is 41,848 km2 (135th of 235 in the world). The Netherlands has some 17 million inhabitants (61st) with the density of circa 400/km2 (28th).	Coat of arms
History Very briefly: on 26 July 1581 Netherland obtain indipendency as result of the Eighty Years' War from the Spanish Empire. After Netherland develop up to a big Empire. The Dutch conceptions of religious tolerance and multiculturalism had a tremendous impact on the construction of the independent American Republic. The American Declaration of Independence (1776) is very similar to the Dutch Act of Abjuration (1581). According to American author Russell Shorto, it is not the early English settlements or the Pilgrim’s colony that represents a model of what America was to become, but rather the Dutch settlement on the island of Manhattan, “the first tolerant, multiethnic, upwardly mobile society on America’s shores”. Recently the Netherlands intended to remain neutral during the Second World War but despite this neutrality, Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands. Today, the Netherlands is regarded as a liberal country, considering its drugs policy and its legalisation of euthanasia. On 1 April 2001, the Netherlands became the first nation to allow same-sex marriage.
Symbols Popular symbols such as the wooden shoes and the windmills to drain water also refer to a nation where people had to adapt themselves to life on marshy ground. Nearly 85% of the population own at least one bicycle. Another famous Dutch symbol, the tulip, refers to the involvement in international trade and the incorporation of foreign elements. The painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is one of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer's masterworks. Sometimes referred to as "the Dutch Mona Lisa". I saw it at Mauritshuis gallery in the Hague and is really beautiful... small paint but great! Reference - http://dutch.berkeley.edu/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands