We drove overnight to the Netherlands. We arrived at a little bed and breakfast type place around 630 and got cleaned up as best as possible in a public restroom before a traditional European breakfast of primarily bread, meat and cheese. Postcard Charlie boarded the bus with us after breakfast and gave us a brief history of Holland dressed in traditional garb. He went with us to the first stop on the tour: the Cheese Farm, to explain the cheese making process. Attached to the cheese house, there was a little souvenir shop where we tasted several different types of cheeses and shopped for wooden shoes and other little souvenirs. I even saw some of the same souvenirs my Grandma brought back for me as presents when she went on a European tour when I was a little girl!
From here, we went to the Ratterman Wooden Shoe Factory. It was pretty impressive to see how a pair of wooden shoes is made in just a few minutes! Even though there were a number of patterns and colors to choose from we decided that we didn't really have the right outfit to wear with wooden shoes. =) But we did find a little pair for to use for a Christmas ornament!
By mid-morning, we were heading into Amsterdam. As soon as we arrived, we went on a canal tour of 'the Venice of the North.' An amazing amount of land that makes up the Netherlands actually was under water until the land was 'claimed from the sea' when dams were built. As a result, there are canals throughout the city that people use for transportation and have houseboats on. It was kind of surreal when the tour guide pointed to an industrial section of town and said that 5 years ago, that land wasn't there, it was under water.
Afterward, we toured the building that was the original Heineken Brewery. The tour was similar in concept to the Chocolate Tour at Hershey Park but fun all the same! There were several interactive portions of the tour, the favorite being "What is it like to be a beer bottle?" We stood on platforms and were jolted this way and that as if we were a beer bottle. We started in the factory, and went through the entire bottling process to being shipped and then opened at a club. Ok, so I lied, the favorite interactive portion of the tour were the two times we got free beer. About midway through the tour we each got a half pint and then at the end we got a full pint...Very nice. The end portion was so packed and sort of dimly lit and smelled like beer. We all agreed that it felt like a frat party...ah the good old days! =) The free gift at the end of the tour was a bottle opener that is the size of a credit card that fits in your wallet...pretty ingenious! =)
Amsterdam is one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. There were people riding bikes Everywhere! We saw women in short skirts, long skirts, people in dress clothes biking. There were kids sitting on handlebars and what looked like wheelbarrows attached to bikes. It was crazy. Seriously, when we wanted to cross a street, we had to be more cautious of bikes than of cars!
For dinner we went to a 'Traditional Chinese-Indonesian Rijstable (rice table) dinner' which basically seemed like a family style Chinese dinner. We had fun visiting with other friends on the tour with us, but felt that it was overpriced and we would have been just as happy eating at a bistro down the road!
After the bus got lost for about an hour trying to find the hotel in The Hague, we checked in and then went on a walk with 7 other friends who were on the tour with us. We originally set out to go to a beach on the North Sea but it got late and we were worried we would get there and then not get back before the buses stopped running for the evening.
On Sunday, we visited the Madurodam, the miniature city , where landmarks of the Netherlands have been constructed on a 1:25 scale. The detail is perfect and we could have easily spent an entire day browsing around the city! There were even miniature tulips! We also walked through an Ice Zoo. I've seen ice sculptures before, but nothing like this! Literally, it was very cool! No wonder Europe doesn't have air conditioning, all of it was in this building! In addition to the zoo, there was also an ice slide and ice maze that we navigated through...very fun!
From there, we went to the Delft Porcelain Factory. The process of making the porcelain was explained as was the art of hand painting each piece. It was interesting to learn that the design is first painted on with a black paint and it is only when the piece is correctly heated in the kiln that the design turns the signature blue color. There are only a handful of factories that make authentic Delft pottery any more. There were some really pretty pieces there, but nothing that we absolutely had to have for the prices!
The highlight of the trip, without a doubt, was the Keukenhof Gardens. Unfortunately, we only had 2.5 hours there. We easily could have walked around all day! Maybe next year. The day was gorgeous, barely a cloud in the sky and about 80 degrees. The flowers were brilliant and fully blossomed...we really lucked out! Some of our pictures make the flowers look like they were glowing! They really were that bright and colorful in person! It was really cool to see some of the flower fields...they really look like the pictures. Rows and rows flowers! How beautiful would that be to wake up to every day!?
On the way out, we stopped at a stand along the edge of the road, I bought 50 tulips for about $10! It was fabulous to have 5 vases of flowers around the house for a while!
Sunrise in the Netherlands (Click to see more pictures!)
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