The Netherlands

The Netherlands is a very big small country, and full of salutary surprises. A chief pleasure of the place is its lively contrast between pragmatic liberalism and the buttoned-up just-so primness of a culture founded on Calvinist principles. The Netherlands is easy to travel in and the locals are friendly and speak excellent English, but many towns are still surrounded by canals and castle walls, the endlessly flat landscape which inspired the nation's early artists still stretches unbroken to the horizons, and dykes still occasionally threaten to give way.