Hoek van Holland Haven metro station

Hook of Holland (Dutch: Hoek van Holland, pronounced [ˈɦuk fɑn ˈɦɔlɑnt] (listen)) is a town in the southwestern corner of Holland, hence the name; hoek means "corner" and was the word in use before the word kaap – "cape", from Portuguese cabo – became Dutch. The English translation using Hook is a false cognate of the Dutch Hoek, but has become commonplace (in official government records in English, the name tends not to get translated and Hoek van Holland is used). It is located at the mouth of the New Waterway shipping canal into the North Sea. The town is administered by the municipality of Rotterdam as a district of that city. Its district covers an area of 16.7 km2, of which 13.92 km2 is land. On 1 January 1999 it had an estimated population of 9,400. Towns near "the Hook" (Dutch: "de Hoek") include Monster, 's-Gravenzande, Naaldwijk and Delft to the northeast, and Maassluis to the southeast. On the other side of the river is the Europort and the Maasvlakte. The wide sandy beach, one section of which is designated for use by naturists, runs for approximately 18 kilometres to Scheveningen and for most of this distance is backed by extensive sand dunes through which there are foot and cycle paths. On the north side of the New Waterway, to the west of the town, is a pier, part of which is accessible to pedestrians and cyclists. The Berghaven is a small harbour on the New Waterway where the Rotterdam and Europort pilots are based. This small harbour is only for the use of the pilot service, government vessels and the Hook of Holland lifeboat.

Hoek van Holland Strand metro station is a metro station in Hook of Holland (Hoek van Holland), Netherlands. It consists of two tracks with side platforms, and was the terminus of the Schiedam–Hoek van Holland railway to Rotterdam when it opened on 1 June 1893. Its name is derived from the nearby North Sea beach, strand being Dutch for “beach”. The Nederlandse Spoorwegen stopped operating the line, including Hoek van Holland Strand railway station, on 1 April 2017, and the line was transferred to the Rotterdam Metro. After reconstruction of the rail infrastructure and the facilities, the opening of the replacement metro line B station is expected in 2022, at which time it will become the new western terminus of the line. Metro line B service opened as far as the preceding station, Hoek van Holland Haven metro station, on 30 September 2019. The new station will be much closer to the beach, so further west, than the original station.

Hoek van Holland Strand station was the terminus of the Hoekse Lijn until 1 April 2017. This railway station in Hoek van Holland was opened on 1 June 1893 . It was approximately 700 meters further west than Hoek van Holland Haven station, with limited trains running to the station outside the summer months. Due to the construction of the Maasvlakte in 1971, the coastline came to lie further out to sea than when the station was opened, so that afterwards the station was no longer close to the beach, but more than a kilometre (about a 15-minute walk) away.

Europoort (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈøːroːpoːrt], English: Eurogate, also "Europort") is an area of the Port of Rotterdam and the adjoining industrial area in the Netherlands. Being situated at Southside of the mouth of the rivers Rhine and Meuse with the hinterland consisting of the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and partly France, Europoort is one of the world's busiest ports and considered a major entry to Europe. The port handled 12 million containers in 2015.The Europoort area is very heavily industrialised with petrochemical refineries and storage tanks, bulk iron ore and coal handling as well as container and new motor vehicle terminals. Europoort is situated on the South bank of the Nieuwe Waterweg, same as the Maasvlakte area. On the Northern bank of the Nieuwe Waterweg one could find Hook of Holland (in Dutch: Hoek van Holland).

The Europoortkering or barrier of the Europoort is a program of engineering works in addition to the Delta Plan, designed to protect the maritime access routes from the port of Rotterdam and thus, the entire South Holland against storms and tides.The original Delta Plan provided no closure of the Western Scheldt and of the Nieuwe Waterweg to allow access to the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam. But regarding the Nieuwe Waterweg and the Hartelkanaal it appeared in the mid-1980s that the levees were not high enough to ensure optimum protection of the territories densely populated South Holland. A heightening of all dikes would be too expensive. An alternative was found. In 1987 the final decision was taken, the Nieuwe Waterweg will be protected by dikes up to the location of a storm surge barrier, the Maeslantkering at Hook of Holland, and the Hartelkanaal will be protected up to another storm surge barrier, the Hartelkering. Between those two barriers, the raising of all dikes will be required. The whole work was finally completed in 1997. The Delta Plan itself protects the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, so mainly Zeeland, while the Europoortkering protects South Holland and not the Europoort which is situated before those protections.

The Maeslantkering ("Maeslant barrier" in Dutch) is a storm surge barrier on the Nieuwe Waterweg, in South Holland, Netherlands. It was constructed from 1991 to 1997. As part of the Delta Works the barrier responds to water level predictions calculated by a centralized computer system called BOS. It automatically closes when Rotterdam (especially the Port of Rotterdam) is threatened by floods.Maeslantkering has two 210-metre long barrier gates, with two 237-metre long steel trusses holding them. When closed, the barrier will protect the entire width (360 metres) of the Nieuwe Waterweg, the main waterway of Port of Rotterdam. It is one of the largest moving structures on Earth, rivalling the Green Bank Telescope in the United States and the Bagger 288 excavator in Germany.

Maasvlakte Heliport (or Pistoolhaven Heliport) is a small heliport in the Netherlands in the harbour area of the Maasvlakte in the city of Rotterdam. It is exclusively used for maritime piloting services. The heliport moved to a new location in 2007. The old location was on the western edge of the Maasvlakte near the coastline. Adjacent to the old heliport there was an ultralight airport which has now been closed.

's-Gravenzande is a town in the province of South Holland, in the Netherlands. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) southwest of The Hague. Until 2004 it was a separate municipality and covered an area of 20.77 km2 (of which 3.38 km2 water). The town of 's-Gravenzande had 15,241 inhabitants in 2011. The built-up area of the town was 2.7 km2, and contained 5,879 residences. The statistical area "'s-Gravenzande", which also can include the peripheral parts of the village, as well as the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 119,750. As of 1 January 2009, 's-Gravenzande is the largest town in Westland with 19.428 inhabitants.The former municipality of 's-Gravenzande also included the township of Heenweg.

The Rhine is one of the major European rivers. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein, Swiss-Austrian, Swiss-German borders. After that the Rhine defines much of the Franco-German border, after which it flows in a mostly northerly direction through the German Rhineland. Finally in Germany the Rhine turns into a predominantly westerly direction and flows into the Netherlands where it eventually empties into the North Sea. It digs an area of 9,973 sq km and its name derives from the Celtic Rēnos. There are also two German states named after the river, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. It is the second-longest river in Central and Western Europe (after the Danube), at about 1,230 km (760 mi), with an average discharge of about 2,900 m3/s (100,000 cu ft/s). The Rhine and the Danube comprised much of the Roman Empire's northern inland boundary, and the Rhine has been a vital navigable waterway bringing trade and goods deep inland since those days. The various castles and defenses built along it attest to its prominence as a waterway in the Holy Roman Empire. Among the largest and most important cities on the Rhine are Cologne, Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Strasbourg, Nijmegen, and Basel.

Monster is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Westland, and lies about 10 km (6.2 mi) south-west of The Hague. The village of Monster has a population of around 11,580. The statistical area Monster, which also can include the surrounding countryside, has a population of around 14,540.Until 2004 it was a separate municipality and covered an area of 20.15 km2 (7.78 sq mi) (of which 5.70 km2 (2.20 sq mi) is water). The former municipality of Monster also included the towns, Poeldijk and Ter Heijde. Monster and Ter Heijde are towns on the North Sea coast and have a popular beach.