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Beautiful garden around estate 'Hoekelum' near Bennekom, Gelderland, the Netherlands
Hoekelum estate house seen from the bridge in the surrounding park.
Entrance of 'Landhuis Hoekelum', an old estate house of about 200 years old. It is nowadays being use...
Gasoline prices continuously increasing, even at self service stations. Photo's taken on December 12,...
Stone paved street bridge. Photo's taken on December 12, 2010.
High and low buildings in a modernised neighbourhood. Photo's taken on December 12, 2010
In Hotel de Wereld at the end of the second world war the negotiations on surrender of the German inv...
Entering nature in the flood area "uiterwaard" of the river Rhine, just south of Wageningen city cent...
This tree with almost horizontal stem is still alive. Photo's taken on may 8, 2011.
Due to draught the water level in the river is record low, however still sufficient for these fast sp...
The beautiful beech forest at Planken Wambuis, the Veluwe, the Netherlands. GPS: 52.028423, 5.794151.
Europe is generally agreed to be the birthplace of western culture, including such legendary innovations as the democratic nation-state, football and tomato sauce.
The word Europe comes from the Greek goddess Europa, who was kidnapped by Zeus and plunked down on the island of Crete. Europa gradually changed from referring to mainland Greece until it extended finally to include Norway and Russia.
Don't be confused that Europe is called a continent without looking like an island, the way the other continents do. It's okay. The Ural mountains have steadily been there to divide Europe from Asia for the last 250 million years. Russia technically inhabits "Eurasia".
Europe is presently uniting into one political and economic zone with a common currency called the Euro. The European Union originated in 1993 and is now composed of 27 member states. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.
Do not confuse the EU with the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states and dates to 1949. These two bodies share the same flag, national anthem, and mission of integrating Europe. The headquarters of the Council are located in Strasbourg, France, and it is most famous for its European Court of Human Rights.
In spite of these two bodies, there is still no single Constitution or set of laws applying to all the countries of Europe. Debate rages over the role of the EU in regards to national sovereignty. As of January 2009, the Lisbon Treaty is the closest thing to a European Constitution, yet it has not been approved by all the EU states.
Text by Steve Smith.
