The Dutch and the British have a long tradition of both rivalry and friendship, yet it is striking how little we know of their country beyond Amsterdam.
The Netherlands, situated right in ‘the cockpit of Europe’, is rich in history for visitors looking for more than just a gentle break among the peaceful countryside for which it is also known.
When the Dutch were not fighting us for mastery of the seas, England sometimes supported their bitter struggle in the wars of religion against the Spanish Empire of the Hapsburgs.
In 1586, the poet-warrior and Elizabethan hero Sir Philip Sidney fought at Zutphen alongside the Dutch against the furia española of the Castilian infantry.
When gravely wounded and offered water, he gestured to another victim lying close by and uttered the immortal line, “His need is greater than mine.”
Sidney died of his wounds in Arnhem on September 22.
Exactly 358 years later, far more British soldiers were dying there in one of the most savage battles to liberate North-West Europe from the Nazis.
This year is an important one for the city of Arnhem and its surrounding area, especially the village of Oosterbeek.
It marks the 75th anniversary of the battle in 1944, when Field Marshal Montgomery launched Operation Market Garden, his ill-fated attempt to shorten the war by jumping the lower Rhine at Arnhem.
Market Garden’s legacy draws thousands of veterans and interested visitors to this eastern city and the surrounding region.
But you don’t have to be a history buff to enjoy Arnhem and its environs. It offers much more than just poignant memories of World War II.
The city, with its many hotels and friendly restaurants, is the ideal base for exploring the surrounding area.
On the northern edge of Arnhem lies the Royal Burgers’ Zoo, founded in 1913, and situated in the wonderful woods of the De Hoge Veluwe.
It is probably the best and the most imaginative of all the zoos in Europe, showing animals in their natural habitat.
They have a walk-through oceanic aquarium, with the biggest coral reef outside Australia; a desert; a tropical rain forest; and the largest indoor mangrove swamp in the world, with Caribbean manatees.
The national parks of De Hoge Veluwe and the Veluwezoom, with their forests and heaths and miles of cycle routes, can be explored on free-to-use white bikes or on foot.
There is also the Netherlands Open Air Museum, with farms, ancient cottages and windmills; artisans, blacksmiths and others there recreate rural life in the Netherlands over the centuries, with the visitors allowed to lend a hand.
North of Arnhem at Apeldoorn is the royal palace of Het Loo, built by William III, our ‘King Billy’.