annabuda

Netherlands - traditional or unexpected?

We made a few-day tour across Netherlands in May 2004.
Martijn, my dutch friend, thanks again for hosting and guiding us.
You are great!

I wanted to see traditional image of Netherlands.
I found out few interesting, unexpected things and broke some stereotypes instead:)


We visited cheesy town Edam. To my surprise, cheese was never produced here. It was only a town where they used to trade cheese, produced in villages from neighbourhood.
Edam

Edam


1st of May is the Queensday in Netherlands. Dutch celebrate it like crazy, especially in Amsterdam.
Surprisingly, the Queen never comes to Amsterdam on that day.
I also found out that the orange colour, used as a symbol in Netherlands, comes from the name of duke Orange, who set up the town Orange and gave a start to build this country (more or less that is what I remember).
Amsterdam


We went to Keukenhof - to admire the beauty of tulips. The park is open only few weeks in May.
To my huge surprise you cannot buy tulip bulbs there then. I was told that season for tulip bulbs starts in september.
Keukenhof

Keukenhof

Keukenhof


I knew that Netherlands is a small country. I have never expected it can be so small:)
Here we are in Madurodam-miniature of Netherlands.
Madurodam


Well, I never considered Netherlands as a place for holidays at the seaside (with their weather).
Surprisingly, they have very nice resort - Scheveningen. It is quite charming and Im sure it is perfect for those who hate heat in Spain.
Scheveningen


Fishermen village in Volerdam. You would never guess - the fishermen used to sleep in small beds placed in walls, hidden by curtains.
Volerdam

Volerdam

Volerdam


Biking is so cool.
They have special parks for that. There is also the second biggest museum of van Gogh in the park, for a small break from biking:)

National Park Hoge Veluwe


Finally I found my beloved wind mills. It is in a village Zaandam.
Zaandam


The nicest experience I have with Netherlands is to know that Dutch are really lovely and friendly people.
Greetings to Maartje, Arjan and Martijn:)

at dutch party:)

posted by anna buda @ 11:31