We spent the last 5 nights staying in a new hotel, the Room Mate Aitana, a 10 minute brisk walk from the Centraal Station. This modern hotel built in 2013 on an island over the IJ River, overlooks the rest of the city. Upgrading to a corner room with panorama windows made an even better difference in perspective!
As luck would have it, the good weather continued to give us sunny breaks which we made the most of by walking the streets and lanes alongside famous canals and old houses. Furthermore, April 27th was King's Day, a unique public holiday characterized by street carnivals and canal partying on barges filled with people dressed in orange. The city centre was declared car-free and made for candid street photos everywhere we went.
We had earlier purchased the Holland Pass which gave us good value for money as it allowed us to join the express queues for Riksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum as well. Each museum was curated very well and the famous landscape paintings illustrated the special quality of "Dutch light". There were so many other interesting museums that we had to carefully pick and choose which ones to see in our relatively short stay. The Tulip Museum's giftshop was very well presented and so were the Sex Museum and Redlight District Museum, just to name a few.
As this year marked the 300th anniversary of Dutch naval power at the height of its colonial past, the museum exhibits were all the more meaningful. Somehow we also managed to squeeze in a visit to Anne Frank's House (or Huis) despite the legendary long queues and cold Spring weather. It was worth it as we understood a part of European history that is a sombre reminder that xenophobia and genocide, along with colonialism and slavery, inflict terrible consequences on human dignity and freedom and must forever be abolished.
We had one last day to explore and blew it on a day trip to nearby Zaanse Schans. This is a recreated windmill town done up for day tourists to understand just how ingenious the old Dutch engineers were in harnessing wind power for all sorts of productive activity. There was a nice museum annexed to the visitor centre with more paintings and relevant historical artefacts. The best part of Zaanse Schans was how clogs are still being made & Theresa couldn't resist buying herself a pretty pair of floral clogs ;-)
We came expressly to the Netherlands this Spring to see for ourselves, the floral phenomenon that is arguably the greatest tulip show on Earth. Even though tulips were originally from Turkey, the Netherlands has become the world's biggest exporter of tulips. With over 2000 tulip species to choose from and a world-class centre of tulip research in nearby Leiden, the Keukenhof Garden, Lisse has become the grand showcase for all serious springflower bulb growers and a mega tourist attraction, with visitors from far and wide.
This season alone, in just 8 weeks, more than 1 million visitors have passed through the gates of Keukenhof to admire not just tulips, but also daffodils, hyacinths, crocuses, orchids, irises and lilies, all artistically landscaped with 12 km of walking trails over 32 hectares. We planned our self-drive 12-day adventure in the second half of April, in the middle of the tulip season. By positioning ourselves in nearby Haarlem and Leiden, we ran with the weather and did several side trips; to the Noordwijk seaside as well as to the windmill countryside of Kinderdijk.
It must have been divine intervention: the first 4 days brought forth beautiful blue skies, gentle breezes and daily temperatures up to a cool 10 degrees Celcius. Although a cold, wet front eventually came in the second week, we could still walk around with umbrellas and take shelter in the famous covered Pavilions, showcasing the best of the best blooms on display.
