Amsterdam has more than 100 kilometers of canals, about 1500 bridges and 100 islands. The main canals are Herengracht (Patrician’s canal), Keizersgracht (Emperor’s canal) and Prinsengracht (Prince’s canal). They exist since the 17th century. The canal ring area of Amsterdam including these three channels has a status of UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Vianden is a castle built between 11th and 14th century on the foundation of a Roman fort. It is certainly one of the largest and most beautiful feudal residences of the gothic period in Europe.
Several hundred years ago Luxembourg fell under Dutch rule. William I of the Netherlands was not interested in the castle and eventually he sold it to a local merchant. Since then no proper maintenance was done and the place was left in ruins. Only in the late 1970s the castle was restored and returned to its former glory.
Around 17% of the land area of the Netherlands has been reclaimed from the sea or lakes. This was achived by building dams and windmills. The latter were used to pump the water (as well as to grind grain into flour and to saw wood).
In 1740s a system of 19 windmills was built in Kinderdijk in order to drain the polders. Today these windmills are one of the most popular tourist attractions in the Netherlands.
A substantial part of Belgium is covered by Ardennes (French: Ardenne; Dutch: Ardennen), a region of extensive forests, hills and ridges. You can do a lot of fun things there such as walking, cycling, fishing, climbing, canoeing and kayaking. What you can also do is just to enjoy beautiful nature. For instance, you may decide to visit some of the caves. We visited the caves of Remouchamps (French: Grottes de Remouchamps; Dutch: Grotten van Remouchamps) and we did not regret.
Baarle-Nassau is a little town in the South of the Netherlands. What makes it special is that there are numerous little exclaves of Belgium just next to this town. The borderline is extremely complicated. At many places it is depicted on the ground, which allows you to take funny fotos.
There are several lava caves in Iceland. Raufarhólshellir is one the longest and the best-known ones. By visiting this cave you can get a feeling of inner workings of a volcanic eruption that occured about 5200 years ago.
Kerið is not just a stunning lake. It is a lake inside of a volcanic caldera (a caldera is the center of a volcano). The water is a nearly neon blue and it is surrounded by rare red volcanic rock.
The area around Kerið is not hilly anymore so it is hard to imagine that thousands of years ago this lake was an active volcano.
This waterfall is perhaps the most famous in Iceland. It is like a dream come true! Here you have a possibility to look at the water “from inside” i.e. you can walk underneath it.
Every waterfall in Iceland has something special. The speciality of Gljúfrafoss is that it is not visible from outside.
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