We reached Amsterdam Schiphol airport by 7:40 PM on 12th April 2001, Thursday. We booked our hotel in place called Voorburg in the outskirts of The Hague (Den Haag). As soon as we came out of the Schiphol Airport, we came to know that the railways are on strike that day! We went to the taxi stand. We found many Mercedes-Benz cars being used as taxis to our surprise. We took a taxi to the hotel. After a couple of minutes of drive we were scared to see an aircraft taxying across the highway. We realised after a while that the runway was cutting across the highway! It was a very unusual scene. We saw a few windmills on the way. The taxi driver told us that the power generated is used to light the lamps on the highway. The highway has 8 lanes (4 on either side) and 4 hard shoulder lanes (2 on either side). The taxi was driven at a speed of 100 KMPH (yes, they measure in kilometres and not in miles as in UK). We reached the hotel and took rest that day. By the way, we booked a 4-star hotel called Movenpick and had a comfortable stay.

The second day we went to Keukenhof Gardens to see Tulips. We actually took a train from Voorburg to Leiden via Den Haag and from there went to Kaukenhauf Gardens by bus. The gardens are quite big and took about 5 hours to move around. It is very much worth seeing them rather than describing them in words. We came out by 5PM in the evening and went to Amsterdam central station. We then took one-hour canal ride around Amsterdam (the name came because the city is on the banks of Amstel River). It was not a wonderful ride though. Because it is summer time we had the ride in daylight.

The third day we started early and booked Grand Holland tour in the last minute. We ran to the buses and managed to get in by 10AM. We were taken to a village. We saw a workshop that makes wooden shoes. In the same place we could also see windmills that pump water into the canals. Then we went to a cottage industry that makes cheese. For the first time we came to know how the cheese we eat in Pizzas is made! We were then taken to a dike. The wooden shoes (I wonder if any one in Holland uses them in normal life), the windmills and the dikes are native to Holland. In the afternoon we went to see a factory that makes 'Delft Blues'. It is nothing but a factory that makes things with China. Then we were taken around The Hague. It was then raining. We saw 'The International Court of Justice'. Then we visited Madurodam. It has miniature Holland built to scale. Very fine work indeed. In the same place we saw the huge Chinese sculpture made purely with ice. It was quite impressive.

The fourth day we left the hotel with our luggage and reached Amsterdam. After some enquiry we reached a diamond factory (Gassan Diamonds). As soon as we entered they asked us 'which country?' We did not know why. Then they called someone who is working there from India to show us around. Before that happened we told them that we can understand English and joined a small group of English speaking people. We were explained how diamonds are made. We were delighted to hear them mentioning India in the history of diamond making! Then we were taken to a private room and explained how to judge a good diamond etc. We learnt about the four factors: cut, clarity, colour and carat. It was very interesting. It was time to check in for our flight. We began our return journey.

We got into the flight. After a while the aircraft began taxying to take off. We then noticed the highway below the runway from the aircraft this time :-) The best features we noticed were: the huge office buildings are next to railway stations. The trains are better than the ones in UK. That way they have best of USA & UK. Because of the canals all over, they do agriculture like in India. They use cycles very much like us in India. They have windmills that are environmental friendly.