Netherlands
From the Wadden Sea to the hills of Limburg: it walks further than you think.
The Netherlands is flatter than its reputation. Along the coast rise dunes that climb past fifty metres, with forest behind them and, inland, the sandy grounds of Utrecht, Gelderland and Brabant: heathland, drifting sands and push moraines left behind by the last ice age. The west and north are peat and clay, cut through by rivers that the country has bent into straight lines. Only in the far south does the landscape turn hilly, in South Limburg, where chalk grasslands and dry valleys form the only real relief in the country. This is a land of paths along water, forest edges and hamlets, and nearly every stage is reachable by train. The Dutch Mountain Trail shows that the Netherlands has height: 101 kilometres over the hills of South Limburg, crossing the chalk grasslands where orchids grow. Further from the border the Pieterpad runs 26 stages from the Wadden Sea to just past Maastricht, and the Nederlands Kustpad follows 711 kilometres of coastline from Zeeland to the German border. Everywhere you walk, every stage starts and ends at a place reachable by train or bus.
