Netherlands has a typical landscape
I have lived in the same Dutch province of North Brabant all my life. Is it a beautiful province in the Netherlands? When I sometimes hear people talking, I hear that they love the Netherlands. That it is a beautiful country, and that they like the Dutch nature. What strikes me most is that the Netherlands has such a typical landscape.
Open meadows and forests
In my daily environment, I don't really see much more than open meadows and forests. And while I'm glad I don't live in a busy city where my daily view is a mass of concrete. Sometimes it is downright boring in my eyes to look at a field full of grass and a forest edge every day. Of course, you really live with the 4 seasons, but even those changes don't make my own living environment a great living environment for landscape photography.
But, The Netherlands is a water country right?
Because I haven't had many opportunities to go further from home in recent years, my collection of landscape photos has thinned out quite a bit. And that's a shame, because despite the fact that I look 'drooling' at landscape photos from other countries, the Netherlands also has a lot to offer for landscape photography.
Unfortunately, I don't have much water in my immediate vicinity. But that is actually strange. The Netherlands is not big, and is known as a water country!
The polder with the dikes
And that can be seen in these photos. A typical Dutch polder landscape. The floodplains that run underwater during times when the river De Maas once again overflows its banks. The dikes that have to hold back the water, and the tension of the residents whether the water will not go over the dike this time, and their home will flood.
Below sea level
The Netherlands is largely below sea level, so traditionally solutions had to be found to keep feet dry. Mills, dykes, overflow areas, land reclamations that have resulted in a completely new province being reclaimed. The Delta Works, are a world wide known invention from the Dutch.
The Dutch have been inventive, and the history of the Netherlands will always be inextricably linked with water.