The Keukenhof Gardens

Finally the day arrives when we will actually see flowers. Apparently you only see flowers all over the countryside in travel brochures.

The Tulip is the national flower and it had a long history as exposed by our tour guide, most of which by this time I didn't listen to as I was on the look out for the flower fields.


We got to the Keukenhof Gardens and I couldn't believe the number of tour buses parked there! Someone told us there were 90 buses. Today the garden was having a tulip parade and they expected 50-60,000 people to attend to watch the parade and go through the garden.

Lee is having a light waffle snack, we only had breakfast an hour ago!

Aiy-yah! as my mother would have said. By the time we left it was a MASSIVE throng of humanity, pushing and shoving to get in through the gate. I should have taken a picture, but all Lee and I thought to do was duck our heads and get the heck out of Dodge.

All that whining aside, the flowers were incredible and it was a beautiful display.

I tried to take some pictures without the thousands of milling photo-snapping throng in the background - oh well!

Say "Cheese", we're at the Keukenhof Gardens.

Middleburg, Zeeland, Netherlands

We toured Middleburg today. It began it's life as a fortification against the Vikings.
This is another harbor town that was also bombed pretty badly during WWII. Many houses were rebuilt but many of it's historical houses were left intact.


Here is a twentieth century picture. We occasionally see kids riding double. This is the first time I've seen one of the kids texting as they go along. She's co-ordinated and talented.


We stopped into a little store on the town square and saw these rows of cheese wheels. Unfortunately we didn't have time to really browse. Sometimes these tour guides are a little like Nazis herding their group along. I guess if everyone was like us (disobedient) then she wouldn't have gotten us to our bus on time.

Brugge - Chocolate and Lace

We spent the whole day in Brugge. The guides told us that Ghent was under construction - not much to see.

Brugge is a medevial town that somehow never got destroyed and was pretty much abandoned for many years until it was recent "rediscovered" and is now a cultural heritage center.


We saw many fantastic building styles, in it's was a wealthy port town.



We took a canal tour. The canals were no way as impressive or complicated as Amsterdam's but it's still very scenic. (I didn't photoshop that sky although it looks fake to me)



These dogs have an interesting life. Instead of chasing cars, they get to bark at all the passing canal boats. They were hilarious!


Brugge is famous for its beer too. We were tired and thirsty after wandering around the town for 3 hours. Lee had a blonde strong beer, it was very good, actually brewed in the bottle. I had a cherry beer which the waiter recommended for ladies who don't like beer.



So these are the only tulips I've really seen enmasse. I've been told we'll see lots of them at Kukenhoff Gardens - not to worry!

Bicycle Safety

I already posted pictures of all the bikes found in Amsterdam. There are quite so many bikes out in the other cities, but still a lot more compared to the US.


You see this quite often. I thought it was kind of interesting the child in the front isn't strapped in and no one wears helmets.


Here they have a foot strap. Becky I think Jube can ride like that don't you. She'd probably like sitting in front! I can see her pointing the way to go!


In Antwerp we actually did see a few people with bike helmets on. They were the tourists on a bike tour! Here these kids are riding the escalator up from and underground tunnel from the other side of the river. They don't have any bridges in Antwerp.

Windmills

The tour is called Tulips and Windmills. Today we saw the windmills.


A house with a thatched roof. The lady in the fore ground is riding her bike.


We went to Kinderdijk, a UNESCO historical location where there are 19 working windmills that were built in the 1700's. These windmills still have people living in them. Only one was open to the public.


Windmills are not a Dutch invention. It came from ancient Rome, but the Dutch really put it to work. The Netherlands is 60% below sea level.



With the use of windmills, the Dutch created canals and drained water away to create dry land. Besides using the mills as a way to move water into man made canals, they used them to grind oil and flour and other products.



Here is the miller whose windmill we visited. He was a very nice guy.



These rooms are low and small, the ladders are really steep. Lee's looking at the very top of the windmill.


The very top of the mill can be cranked in either direction so the sails can catch the wind.

Historical Museum

We went to an "Open Air Museum" in Arnhem. They brought old houses from various provinces of the Netherlands and rebuilt them here. They also had demonstrations of life was way back in the day. I think any museuem that's interactive is really cool.

There was a "Holland Rama" which was a 'ride' but actually is a moving set (our seats moved on a platform up, down and around) that takes the audience through the highlights of culture of the Dutch through short video clips and dioramas. Very cool. Too bad for us it was all in Dutch!

Here are some ancient costumes that the Dutch wore.


Bicycles has been a huge part of their history.


Here is an old Dutch house with the thatched roof. They believed the color blue chases away flies.

War Museum

We went to the war museum they have here in Nijmegen. This area saw the largest airbourne offensive in WWII code named Market Garden. On September 17, 1944 the Allied forces began dropping paratroopers, supplies and weapons into various strategic areas here.


The museum is in the shape of a parachute.

It was a tough fight, Arnhem is the location of the movie “A Bridge Too Far” and we were docked right by the bridge that the Allied Forces were trying to take. Unfortunately that part of the campaign was a failure. Only 400 British Airbourn troops got to the bridge but couldn’t hold the bridge. They were overrun after about 4 days.

I didn’t know how close Nijmegen was to the German border. Our tour guide pointed out that across the street was Germany and on the other side it was Netherlands.

Dutch Auction

We bought an optional excursion to see the North Holland country side, not far from Hoorn.
The area was nicknamed The Land of 1000 Islands. This was because the land in low lying and the only way the poor Dutch farmers could make a living was by hand digging out trenches to create canals thus creating “islands” which were about 60 meters square.


They created a clock that started at a high price and counted down. Buyers would press a button when it reached a price they were willing to pay for the goods.

In it’s hey day, the auction would have 300 boats and it would take 2 hours to sell all the goods.

We had a pretend auction and didn't win any fruit, but they had a contest at the end of the auction to see who could push his button closest to a .90 euro mark. Lee won and his prize to be able to put his name on the board saying he was a Super Buyer!


Now the “islands” have been turned into housing plots. The houses are very nice and some of them very very expensive.

Hoorn

We sailed overnight to Hoorn which is located on Lake Markemeer, a fresh water lake that was created by damning a portion of it.

It used to be a fishing village, but since the lake was damned there is no fishing and only one fisherman still lives in the village.


We went on a walking tour and got new addition to the group.


I think Lee misses Sylvester!


Oops, hope this person has his parking breaks on!

Some kids practicing their sailing skills.



It was a beautiful morning.

Houseboats

There are boats and house boats lining all of the canals. On the narrower ones you only see small boats but on the wider ones you can have house boats, sometimes on both sides of the canal.



Some have smaller boats tied to them and people who live in these house boats use the smaller boats to get around the city.

House boats are very expensive – they may start at 500 euros and then you have to pay to the property which is leased to you by the government. Pretty expensive cost per square foot price!

Canal Cruise

We are bus no. 1. They were supposed to have 3 buses but only have 2 now.

Our first excursion was a canal cruise.


After about 2 turns we were hopelessly lost. Good thing our captain knew his way around the water ways.
He only hit one of the bridges once.



I must say that all the canals looked the same – some wider, some narrower. Debbie for your information, our guide told us Amsterdam has 250 canals and 1200 foot bridges.


They dig the canals to keep the water level down. There are locks on certain canals. Every night at 11pm they let fresh water in from river that comes out of Germany to keep the canals fresh. The water then empties out toward England.



The traditional Dutch house is tall and narrow because the government taxes the frontage. So only wealthy people had a wide house.



There are levers protruding from the roof. Some houses have hooks, some have chains. They are used to haul large items up to the upper stories.


Can you see the gal in the open window?
Our tour guide said most Dutch rent the top stories to students.