The Holland Provinces
NOORD-HOLLAND
Noord-Holland is a peninsula between the North Sea in the west and the IJsselmeer Lake in the east. Besides the well-known attractions in the city of Amsterdam (such as the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum), other cities worth visiting are Haarlem (the capital of Noord-Holland), Zaandam and Alkmaar. Noord-Holland also has picturesque landscapes and villages, with drawbridges, windmills and tulip fields, as well as historic harbor villages such as Volendam and Marken, where Dutch traditional costumes are still worn. Consider visiting the Zuiderzee Museum, an open-air museum with exhibitions on what it was like to live and work on the Zuyder Zee (now called IJsselmeer) one hundred years ago.
ZUID-HOLLAND
This province is bounded by the North Sea in the west. East are the provinces of Utrecht and Noord-Brabant and in the south is Zeeland. The capital is The Hague, the residence of Queen Beatrix, as well as the seat of government and museums such as the Mauritshuis and Miniature City Madurodam. Other cities include Rotterdam (known for its architecture and the largest harbor in the world), Leiden and Delft (famous for delftware). When in Leiden, visit the Naturalis Museum. This museum displays the diversity of nature and natural processes from the big bang to todays ecosystems.