Welcome to the land of tulips, bicycles, and dams! The Netherlands is easily distinguishable from the rest of Europe thanks to flat terrain, distinctive license plates, and the aforementioned abundance of bicycles. Read on to learn more about the Netherlands in GeoGuessr!

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Subdivisions

The Netherlands is comprised of the following twelve provinces:

• Drenthe DR
• Flevoland FL
• Friesland/Fryslân FR
• Gelderland GE
• Groningen GR
• Limburg LI
• Noord-Brabant NB
• Noord-Holland NH
• Overijssel OV
• Utrecht UT
• Zeeland ZE
• Zuid-Holland ZH

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License Plates

Vehicles in the Netherlands have yellow license plates, with black text and a blue band on the left. The band bears standard the EU flag and the code NL for the Netherlands: NLA-123-BC Dutch license plates are typically a deeper shade of yellow than those found in Luxembourg and, unlike the United Kingdom, are yellow on both sides of the vehicle.

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Phone Codes

Phone numbers are prefixed with a zero (0), and are fairly well ordered, although there are some oddities:

Other 7

These are codes are tied to municipalities across the country.

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Roads, Markings, and Signage

Dutch pedestrian crossings are particularly distinctive, sporting parallel lines of alternating length that you will not find anywhere else. Bike lanes are incredibly common in the Netherlands, and are often painted red. When along the side of the road, they are demarcated using dashed white lines. In many areas, bike paths are completely separated form the road altogether, which is not very common in other countries.

Street names in the Netherlands typically end in straat (street), laan (lane), or weg (way), but can occasionally end in kade, pad, or gracht. Bike paths are often labeled fietspad, which can be an easy way to identify the Netherlands given the abundance of bicycle infrastructure. Bridges usually end in brug, so if you see that on a sign it might be worth checking out, even if the Netherlands has a nearly endless supply of them!

On major roads, you will often find blue signs with white lettering pointing you to nearby towns, cities, or highways. Brown signs point you to historic or touristic locations, and white signs with red outlines and text denote directions for cyclists. And on highways, look for blue UIT signs to take the exits.

A- and N-routes (see Highways) typically have green-backed kilometer markers bearing the route number and traversed distance on them. A-route markers are mostly standardized across the network, but N-route markers can vary by province.

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Highways & Road Numbering Schemes

The Dutch road network is one of the densest in the world, and is comprised of three layers of roads. In descending order of throughput, they are A-, N-, and S-routes, and are numbered prefixed with the respective letter.

A-routes (Autosnelwegen)

The A-routes, as controlled-access, multi-carriageway freeways, have the highest capacity of any, and typically have speed limits in excess of 100 km/h. They can be numbered up to three digits in the following format: A12. They are easy to spot on the map, and only 45 such highways exist in the Netherlands. Exits are numbered sequentially. To learn more, check out autosnelwegen.net

N-routes (Autowegen)

The N-routes are the most extensive of the Dutch highway networks, and are the network you will encounter most often in GeoGuessr. They can be numbered up to three digits in the following format: N123. N-routes are fairly well-ordered, although the numbering is split into two sections.

N198 - N399

These N-routes are roughly clustered by region within the country:

• N198 - N250: West (Noord-Holland, Zuid-Holland, Utrecht)
• N251 - N300: South (Zeeland, Noord-Brabant, Limburg)
• N301 - N350: East (Gelderland, Overijssel, Flevoland)
• N351 - N399: North (Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe)

N400 - N999

These N-routes roughly correspond to the provinces:

• N400 - N430: Utrecht
• N430 - N500: Zuid-Holland
• N500 - N550: Noord-Holland
• N550 - N600: Limburg
• N600 - N650: Noord-Brabant
• N650 - N700: Zeeland
• N700 - N730: Flevoland
• N730 - N780: Overijssel
• N780 - N850: Gelderland
• N850 - N900: Drenthe
• N900 - N950: Friesland
• N950 - N999: Groningen

S-routes (Stadsroutes)

S-routes, or stadsroutes, literally translates to city routes, and as such are only found in specific urban areas. Only six cities currently have S-route networks: Amsterdam, Zaanstad, and Almere in the north; Rotterdam and Den Haag in the south; and Nijmegen in the east. They are all numbered with three digits, and numbers begin with 1 or 2. All roads numbered s100 are inner-city ring roads; there is typically no pattern to the other S-routes.

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Architecture

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Language

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands, and as such is the primary language seen in the Netherlands, although English is also commonly seen on signs, especially in urban, touristy areas. It is easy to tell apart from both English and German, its two closest linguistic relatives, as it typically contains more double-vowel sequences than both languages, and can seem like a combination of the two languages.

In the province of Friesland/Fryslân, West Frisian is an official language, and can be found on signs. Town entry signs in Friesland are often bilingual, bearing both the West Frisian and Dutch names. Such signs are a good indicator that you are in Friesland.

Script

Dutch uses the 26 letters of the standard Latin alphabet, plus an additional digraph IJ which is a distinctive feature of the language.

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii
Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr
Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy IJij Zz

West Frisian uses the same alphabet, but can also have circumflex (ˆ) or acute (´) accents on four vowels:

Ââ Êê Ôô Ûû Áá Éé Óó Úú

Samples

Dutch

Alle mensen worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van broederschap te gedragen.

West Frisian

Alle minsken wurde frij en gelyk yn weardigens en rjochten berne. Hja hawwe ferstân en gewisse meikrigen en hearre har foar inoar oer yn in geast fan bruorskip te hâlden en te dragen.

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Meta-gaming

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Most Similar

Denmark

Denmark is often confused with the Netherlands due to the similarly flat landscape, blue street signs, and occasionally a yellow license plate. To tell them apart, be on the lookout for bike paths – in the Netherlands, they are typically painted red, while in Denmark they are simply lined with dashed lines on either side. Highway signs are also a good indicator, since the Netherlands has blue signs, while Danish ones are typically white with a red outline, and are lower to the ground than Dutch ones.

Belgium

Belgium can look similar to the Netherlands, especially in the bordering regions in Flanders. Flemish, which is spoken in Flanders, also looks similar to Dutch, which can add to the confusion. If in an urban area, check for street signs – Belgian cities have the city's name written on them, while Dutch cities do not. In the countryside, pay close attention to the roads, as Dutch roads are typically better in quality, and have parallel bike lanes much more often than Belgium.