My response (as an actual Dutch person): there is no wilderness in the Netherlands, even the places that QG mentions are tiny specks of nature in what is mostly a very urban country. However, there are many interesting things to see if you know what to look for. Personally, I find it fascinating how humans have completely transformed a cold, damp swamp into one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. And our efforts to keep out the water, in particular the Oosterscheldekering (a storm surge barrier), contain some of the most impressive human-built structures that I have seen. But I can see that someone who is new to the country can't appreciate that (but hopefully it will come).
[And mayonnaise and peanut sauce are two of the greatest things to put on your deep fried potatoes. If you don't like mayonnaise, then order a "patatje pinda" instead.]
Ketchup. A little bit of salt (Dutch fries never have enough salt).
And agreed re lack of wild places. There is nothing natural about the Netherlands. The whole country has been carved out of a swamp by shear force of Will (and quite a few people called Jan, and the odd Cornelius).
Even the "wild" places like the Veluwe and the Utrechtse Heuvelrug were managed for hundreds of years to produce wood for pit props for the minors of Limburg.
Friesland and Groningen that the author of this article toured in were reclaimed, originally by placing sticks in the ground to slow the water and cause the water ways to silt up. The homes were built on mounds, called terps, surrounded by swamp, and waterways. (This is for the benefit of the non Dutch here, not me telling slugbait the history of his country, that I reserve for residents of the Randstad).
In much of Europe there is no natural land. Even the Highlands of Scotland have been shaped by grazing.
Here in .NL the suggestion to return an area of dunes back to how they were before men fucked with them, has met with lots of resistance. Because it means felling over ten thousand pine trees. Pine trees planted artificially.
For many of us in western Europe, we wouldn't recognize our land of it was actually in anyway close to what it "naturally" was before humans fucked with it.
J
