ZOETERMEER

'' (population: 118,483 on March 1, 2007) is a city in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of 37.06 km² (of which 2.15 km² is water). The name "Zoetermeer" (which translates into English as roughly "Sweet Lake") refers to the former
lake at the site of the town. Zoetermeer is the third largest city in the province of South Holland, after Rotterdam and The Hague.

Contents

History

Transport

Neighbourhoods

Nature

ICT-city

Virtual Zoetermeer

The Mormon Temple

Leisure

There are plans to build an indoor diving centre in Zoetermeer. With 70 mtrs in diameter and 30 mtrs deep, it will be the largest indoor diving centre in the world. There will be a coral reef and under water caves and a large beach around the edge. 10.000 real life tropical fish should make it as realistic as possible.

External links

History

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In the 10th century Zoetermeer was a small village, primarily home to farmers and fishermen. Somewhere in the 13th century village centre was formed which still exists to this day as the historic Dorpsstraat. Until the 17th century there was a lake, called the Zoetermeer. Nowadays only a small portion of it remains, as the "Noord Aa" at the northern edge of town. This man-made lake was created when tons of sand were needed as building material for the foundations for new housing development, and the area north of Zoetermeer provided a good source.
Until 1935 the village centre we know today was actually split into two villages, Zoetermeer and Zegwaard. The standard of living at the time was said to be higher in Zoetermeer than in Zegwaard. Nowadays, the name Seghwaert (older way of spelling of Zegwaard) is used for one of the neighbourhoods outside the old village centre. Zoetermeer began to grow slightly when the first train service came around 1868. A few decades later the Numico factory started near the station. The real growth started in 1966, when there was an urgent need of houses from people around The Hague. From then they started to build new quarters around the old village centre, so Zoetermeer began to grow and became a city in the meantime.
Although Zoetermeer nowadays has the image of a modern city, there are still remains of the past. Like the old village centre with its small houses and the church with late medieval 15th century clock tower (on picture, wooden top from 1642), and the old farms, surrounded by modern houses nowadays.
Lake Dobbe divides the old town from the new city centre, with the medieval village centre on one side of the lake and the modern high-rise and skyscrapers on the other side.

Transport

There's a light rail under reconstruction now. The former city railway called stadslijn is being rebuild for that purpose. The stadslijn was the only city railway in The Netherlands and comparable to the strassebahne in Berlin or RER in Paris. It had 12 stations in Zoetermeer and run to and from The Hague Central Station.
The new light rail is part of the Randstadrail project between The Hague, Rotterdam and Zoetermeer. Besides the rebuild stadslijn, which now has 13 stations, a new line has been constructed called the Oosterheemlijn. This new line leads to a new part of town called Oosterheem, with 30.000 inhabitants when finished the largest quarter of Zoetermeer. The Oosterheemlijn now has three stations, but will be extended to Rotterdam in the future. The Randstadrail has been postponed until the beginning of 2007 due to several derailment incidents.
There are two stations in use on the main railway between The Hague and Utrecht. Zoetermeer was one of the first cities in the Netherlands to be connected by a railway in 1868. The old station Zoetermeer-Zegwaard burnt down in 1906 and is now called Zoetermeer-Oost. The newer station called "Zoetermeer" is the main train station nowadays.
The HSL-Zuid, as the Dutch Thalys TGV highspeed railway line from Amsterdam to Paris is called, also runs through Zoetermeer, but doesn't stop there yet. In the future a new station will be built where Randstadrail, the main railway between The Hague and Utrecht and the HSL-Zuid meet.
Zoetermeer is built next to the A12 highway between The Hague and Utrecht.

Neighbourhoods

Zoetermeer is a town divided into 10 neighbourhoods. Every neighbourhood has at least one shopping mall and a train-station (see above at "Transport").
These neighbourhoods have the following names (in brackets the year the neighbourhood was designated, although some of the neighbourhood already existed before designation):

★ Buytenwegh de Leyens (1974)

★ Dorp (1962)

★ Driemanspolder (1965)

★ Meerzicht (1969)

★ Noordhove (1986)

★ Oosterheem (1999)

★ Palenstein (1966)

★ Rokkeveen (1987)

★ Seghwaert (1975)

★ Stadscentrum (1978)

Nature

Zoetermeer has a lot of parks all over the town, the biggest one is the "Westerpark" in the Westside of the town. It's almost as big as Central Park, NYC. There's also the "Buytenpark", the "Westerpark", the "Aldo van Eijkpark", the "Binnenpark", the "Van Tuyllpark, the "Hoekstrapark", the "Wilhelminapark", the "Floriadepark", the "Seghwaertse Hout" and the "Seghwaertpark".
At the Northside there's a lake, the "Zoetermeerse Plas", often referred to as lake "Noord Aa", because it lies in the Noord Aa recreational area. There's a beach along one side of the lake and a marina on the other. Wind- and kite surfing, sailing and fishing are the most popular activities on the lake.
On both the Westside and the Eastside of the city there are man made forests under construction, called "Balijbos" (Westside) and Bentwoud (Eastside). These forests will form a "natural" barrier between the ever growing cities of The Hague and Zoetermeer.

ICT-city

Zoetermeer is a so called ICT-city which means Zoetermeer has a modern infrastructure and a lot of schools that offer ICT-related education. Also 20% of the population of Zoetermeer already has an ICT-related job. Siemens and Toshiba also have factories in Zoetermeer.
The municipality of Zoetermeer designates a comparatively large part of the budget to computers for schools.
To stress the ICT-tradition of Zoetermeer, the city is the first in the world to have a city hall in Second Life. Zoetermeer is sometimes referred to as Geek town or the Dutch Silicon Valley.

Virtual Zoetermeer

Virtual Zoetermeer is a game made by the municipality of Zoetermeer. It lets you rebuild the city of Zoetermeer. It kind of looks like SimCity and is in Dutch. You can download the game here.
There used to be a castle in Zoetermeer, called Palenstein. You can experience the life in the castle in this game.

The Mormon Temple

The only temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Netherlands, is located in Zoetermeer, sited near the old village centre.[1]

Leisure

This former New Town used to be called a "sleeping city", as many residents worked in The Hague. They would drive off in the morning to go to work, shop and even go out in The Hague, to return to their homes in Zoetermeer in the evenings. This image has changed, however. Zoetermeer is a real city now, with a large theatre, mega cinema and so forth. There are 7 discotheques in total, outnumbering The Hague. Discotheque "Locomotion" is the oldest of them, plus the first mega disco of The Netherlands.
Besides leisure facilities like go karts, laser gaming, survival centre and a golf centre, Zoetermeer also has three outstanding attractions;
===SnowWorld===
SnowWorld was the first Indoor ski slope made of real snow in Europe, when it opened in 1996. It now has three slopes, of which the 200 meter slope is the longest. Plans are being made to build a new 500 meter slope. SnowWorld attracts over a million visitors each year, making it the most important tourist attraction of Zoetermeer.
===Dutch Water Dreams===
DWD is an artificial Olympic wild water rafting circuit. It is a copy of the one being build in China for the Olympic Games of 2008 and is mainly used for training purposes by European rafting teams. You can also visit DWD for team building or recreation. Besides the rafting circuit DWD also has an indoor wave boarding centre.
===Silverdome===
Silverdome is an indoor Olympic ice skating track and convention centre. It's used as a training centre for the KNSB, the Dutch Olympic and world championship ice skaters. Outside the skating season it's used as a convention centre and concert hall and even large raves.
===Indoor Dive=

There are plans to build an indoor diving centre in Zoetermeer. With 70 mtrs in diameter and 30 mtrs deep, it will be the largest indoor diving centre in the world. There will be a coral reef and under water caves and a large beach around the edge. 10.000 real life tropical fish should make it as realistic as possible.

Sister cities and twin towns==

★ Nitra, Slovakia

External links

★ Official website (Dutch)

★ Google Map

★ Smaller map, but with urban bus lines

★ Maps and diagrams on railway to The Hague

★ ICT Academy

★ The Den Haag Temple

★ Zoetermeer in Beeld (Dutch)