Waddinxveen 5.51

Waddinxveen is a town and municipality along the Gouwe river in the western Netherlands in the province of South Holland near Gouda. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is water.In Waddinxveen, there's the so-called 'Vergeten Plek' (Dutch for 'Forgotten Place'). This is the lowest place in the Dutch polders. It's 7.01 meters below Amsterdam Ordnance Datum.Partner city of Waddinxveen is Pelhřimov in the Czech Republic.HistoryThe first reference to the area is from 1233, when on April 20, Floris IV, Count of Holland, sold an area of peat lands along the Gouwe River for 200 Dutch pounds to Nicolas of Gnepwijk, Lord of Aalsmeer and Woubrecht. The area was given the name "Waddinxvene". Because of this event, Waddinxveen celebrated its 750-year anniversary in 1983.Between 1817 and 1870, Waddinxveen was dissolved and its area split into the municipalities of Noord-Waddinxveen and Zuid-Waddinxveen. Due to further expanding, those two municipalities reunited into one.Born in Waddinxveen Sharon den Adel (b. 1974) – vocalist of Within Temptation Mark van den Akker (b. 1966) (nl) – disc jockey at KXRadio Pepijn van den Nieuwendijk (b. 1970), painter and ceramist Hubert van Steel (b. 1856) – Dutch Grand Master Martijn Westerholt (b. 1978) – keyboardist of Delain Robert Westerholt (b. 1975) – guitarist of Within Temptation Mark Vanderloo (b. 1968) - model