Zoetermeer (population: 115,913 in February 2005) is a town 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). "Zoetermeer" is often translated into English as "Sweet Lake City". When the building of the town is ready in a few years, Zoetermeer is the third-biggest city in the province of South Holland, after Rotterdam and The Hague.
Transport
One of the two railway lines in Zoetermeer, although belonging to the main railway system, is metro-like with 12 stations.
See also Randstad Rail in Transportation in the Netherlands.
Zoetermeer is build next to the highway A12, heading to Utrecht.
Parts of the city
Zoetermeer is a town with 11 parts called "stadswijken". Every part of the town has at least one shopping mall and a train-station (see above at "Transport").
-Noordhove
-Oosterheem
-Seghweart
-Rokkeveen
-Buytenwegh
-De Leyens
-Meerzicht
-Driemanspolder
-Dorp
-Centrum
-Palenstein
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 "Van Tuylpark, the "Buitenpark", the "Wilhelminapark", the "Floriadepark", the "Seghwaertse Hout" and the "Seghwaertpark".
ICT-city
Zoetermeer is a so called ICT-city (ICT stands for Information and CommunicationTechnoligy) and it means Zoetermeer has a modern infrastructure, a lot of schools where you can learn for an ICT-related job. Also 20% of the population of Zoetermeer already has an ICT-related job.
The municipality of Zoetermeer spends a lot of money on PC's for schools.
Virtual Zoetermeer
Virtual Zoetermeer is a game made by the municipality of Zoetermeer. It makes you rebuild the city of Zoetermeer. It kind of looks like Sim City. Unfortunately it's a Dutch game. You can download it here.
External links