Just to comment on the crime thing. It seems that when people who frequent cycling sites think about the Netherlands they think about pretty women on third world bikes. Really you're just magical elf people dancing around in wooden clogs and cycling without helmets, why would you have crime when you're practically smurfs?
Then you get people who've been to the Netherlands and know that it's just like almost every other Northern European country. Damp, mainly green, splashes of sporadic violence and decent beer.