THE NETHERLANDS
The Netherlands – means “the land below”. And truly, more than half the country is below the sea level. The Dutch have done a remarkable job of designing their cities to keep out the sea from flooding their homes. Our trip to The Netherlands was for 4 days, from 14th April to 17th April, during the Easter vacation. We took a flight from Billund (Denmark) to Amsterdam. It was just 1 hour flight. A few minutes before landing, we had a beautiful view of the city below. It appeared as if the city was designed on a map and then put on land. You can see the canals cut out perfectly between land masses with uniform pockets of buildings, parks…… The Schipol airport in Amsterdam, is quite close to the city, only 20 min by train. There are trains every 15-20 min from the airport to the Amsterdam city. We had some hours of the evening for visiting some places in the city. We started with the old part of the city, St Nicolaaskerk, city´s foremost catholic church. Then to the Zuiderkerk, Nieumarkt (earlier, a very important trading square for Jews), Oude Kerk and a Chinese temple.
Our friends from Germany arrived late in the night.
The next day, we started with the NEMO science museum. We did not visit it from inside. The entry ticket is expensive but it is worth a visit if you have children of 7-14 yrs age group. The museum building is constructed in the shape of a ship and looks quite attractive as it is in water.
We then went to the newer part of the city, i.e. the western side. Firstly, the Brouwersgracht (girdle of canals), one of the most peaceful and picturesque waterways in the city. As the spring has got delayed this year, the trees were not green, but the canals and the surroundings still looked beautiful. We then went to the Anne Frank House. We had read about her diaries written during the Nazi period, and had made up our minds to go inside the museum, but looking at the long queue for the entry, we changed our mind. We would have wasted 2-3 hours just waiting in the queue. Next to the Anne Frank House, is the Westerkerk, a Protestant church. It looks quite impressive. We then walked back to the hotel to have lunch and take rest. As our hotel was in the centre of the city (right behind the Dam square), we could walk around in the city and come back to have rest in between. After our break, we visited the Dam square – the largest square in the city. On one side is the Niewe Kerk, opposite to it is the local branch of Madame Tussaud’s museum. On the other side is the Royal Palace and opposite to it is the War memorial, a prominent white stone tusk. The square was very crowded as you can see in the photos; even difficult to take pictures! Nor did we find the Royal Palace very impressive. There were also 4-5 beggars posing as painted statues. (a very innovative way of begging in Europe; or can we call it begging, its rather a display of art! See pictures IMG_3981a and 3982a). From the Dam square, we walked down to the Flower market, crossing the Rokin street. The flower market is quite beautiful with lots of tulips and other flowers on display. But it is also very crowded. From here we walked to the Heineken brewery building, which is the most famous beer in The Netherlands. The brewery displays the history of beer making in general. We reached there almost at the time of closing. So we did not go inside the brewery. The Rijksmuseum is quite close to it, but we did not go there, as we were tired and not very keen on visiting museums. From the brewery, we took a tram to the central station. From there we took a boat ride in the canals of Amsterdam. By then it was dinner time and returned to the hotel.
The next day, the Easter Sunday, we went to Rotterdam. Being Easter, we got the First class ticket, costing less than the second class ticket! And we could travel anywhere in Netherlands and any train (including the InterCityExpress) with the same ticket, the whole day. But as such in Europe, there is not much difference in first class and second class.
We reached Rotterdam around 11 a.m. When you step out of the station, you will see several tall, gleaming buildings. One of our friends in the group had a friend in a Rotterdam. So he (Satish) took us around the city. Most of the sight-seeing places are within walkable distance in the city. We walked to the Laurens kerk - one of few buildings in the centre of Rotterdam that survived the WWII bombardment. Then to Leuvehaven - harbour (near Maritime museum). Then we walked to an area called as Blaak, which is just 5-6 min from the harbour. Here we saw the popular cubic houses – Kubuswoningen. Then we walked towards the sea. On the way we passed a big building of MAERSK on which Jackie Chan had done some stunts in the movie “Who am I?” (photo IMG_4115). We then walked along the sea side, crossing the Flag museum. Flags of different countries all over the world are displayed here. We saw 2 beautiful bridges during our walk. One is the Willemsbrug and the other is the Erasmusbrug. The Willemsbrug is suspended between its two red pylons. The Erasmus bridge, especially, is very fascinating and beautiful with its modern architecture – it has a single support pylon. It is nicknamed as ‘Swan’ and was opened in the year 1996. It is the major attraction of the city. It is worth a visit. We then took a tram to the Delfshaven. Delfshaven is the one of the few areas in the city, where some old houses can still be seen with canals, trees around and a wind mill. The heart of Rotterdam city was completely destroyed during the WWII. In the postwar period, modern buildings were built in the city. So the city looks very modern compared to Amsterdam or other cities in the country. Rotterdam has the tallest buildings in Netherlands and also the largest port in the world!
We had finished with the sight seeing of Rotterdam in 3 hours. We still had half day to roam around and the first class ticket to use. J So Satish suggested that we should go to Delft because it is very beautiful town. By train it took us only 20 min to reach Delft. It is between Den Haag and Rotterdam.
Delft is a lovely little town with one of the prettiest market squares in the country. The town looks beautiful with its old traditional look - red-roofed houses, ancient buildings, tree-lined canals and bridges. It is one of the most visited spots in Netherlands. Markt (central part of town) is the pretty market square of the town. We went there first. In this square stands the Nieuwe kerk. The kerk contains the burial vaults of the Dutch Royal family. On the opposite side is the Stadhuis. From this square, the spires of the church behind are also seen, which adds to the beauty of the Markt square. And while returning to the central station, we walked around the town.
We liked the town very much.
We then took a train to Den Haag. Here we went to the Scheveningen – the biggest coastal resort of Netherlands. The main attraction here is the beach. That evening it was bit cold, but we stayed there for around 3 hours walking along the beach, having some hot snacks and coffee. The most impressive building along the beach is the Kurhaus, a grand hotel of 1885. We then went to the front side to get the front view of the hotel. The back side (view from beach) of the building is more beautiful than the front view, according to my opinion. Also we had a quick look inside the central hall of the hotel. The hall is richly decorated with chandeliers and mermaids and it is worth a visit. Opposite to the Kurhaus is a Casino. We then took a tram to the Central station of Den Haag. And then the train back to Amsterdam.
The next day we went to Keukenhof gardens, the main purpose of visit to Amsterdam of many tourists from all over the world, in the spring. We had booked the bus tickets (including entry ticket) on the first day of arrival in Amsterdam because the queue for the entry ticket at Keukenhof can be long. Keukenhof lies in a small town, Lisse, 30 km away from Amsterdam. Keukenhof has the largest and the most beautiful flower gardens in the world.
There are more than 7 million flowers on show in their full flowering period. The gardens specialize in daffodils, narcissi, hyacinths and tulips. The garden area is very big and stunningly beautiful. One can randomly click their camera and still get beautiful pictures. Its beautiful all over. And of course the tulip bulb fields too. The field looks like geometrically divided multicoulour strips. The colourful field of tulips and the other flowers is mind-blowing!! We had taken a ticket with 3 hours of visiting time inside the garden. But we soon realized that 3 hours are too less, atleast 6 hours are required to enjoy walking in the beautiful garden and visiting the glass houses and pavilions. The garden with flowers, trees around the lake looked like heaven!! We took lots of snaps here. We then returned at the scheduled time back to Amsterdam city with the memory of the colourful fields we had just seen. We then went to the hotel and relaxed.
The next day, early morning we took a flight back to Billund (Denmark).
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