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Cologne is in the northern part of Germany and close to the northern countries of Europe. Places we have yet to visit. So when we were planning to visit Fabrizio during Spring Break, it seemed appropriate to continue north to see the Netherlands. For what better time to see the tulips of Holland than in the spring?
It also turns out that our friends here in France have family in the Netherlands and so they took the time to spend the weekend with family and then a few days with us. Good fun with good friends is even better, right? Right!
The Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem is the Greenfield Village of the Netherlands. That is, a collection of the authentic and antique buildings collected in one place to show and preserve the memory of life as it was in Holland. This is a touch and learn museum where everyone is encouraged to see, experience, and learn. Carry water buckets on yoke, hand wash laundry in a tub, milk a (artificial) cow, climb inside a working windmill and watch the wooden gears whirl, watch a water powered paper mill mash pulp... It is all there and more. It was a gray rainy day that none of us noticed because we were having too much fun learning.
All museums should be this good!
Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and the home of several great museums. This spring there is a special showing of the art of Vincent VanGogh and Paul Gaugin, two artists whose relationship changed art. We came to Amsterdam for this exposition.
Was this a good idea, you ask? Three adults and six children viewing impressionist art from the 1800s. A recipe for disaster, right? Wrong! The show was well done with a natural flow, interpretive booklets, and interactive headphones for everyone. The children compared, contrasted, and debated the art as much or more then us adults. In it's own quiet way, this museum and the special display were as big a hit as Arnhem was the day before.
Since photos were not permitted, you can learn more about this special showing here.
Spring, tulips, and Holland are three great things that are great together. The Keukenhof Gardens is the best combination of these. Several acres of gardens, planted to always be in color and in season. If that were not enough, they include activities that are child specific and child friendly so that the entire family enjoys the day spent wandering the gardens. Words are not sufficient to describe the beauty and the fun. In fact, even pictures only begin to describe the beauty and the joy of a day spent wandering these gardens.
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The sailors of the Netherlands sailed the world and collected treasures from everywhere, exposing Europe to the best and the brightest the world had to offer. One of these was the porcelain of China. The artisans of Delft copied the product of China, the classic blue on white porcelain, and made it their own with colors, patterns, designs, and prices against which China could not compete. An industry was born.
We visited the Royal Delft factory to see the product being made and to watch beautiful products being hand painted. We were struck by the fact that product once made in Europe because it was less expensive than the Chinese original is now being made in China because it is less expensive than the European version. Go figure.
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Statistically, the population density of the Netherlands in the highest in all of Europe. The consequences of this were evident in every city we visited. Bicycle riders and pedestrians were everywhere. Every street had a bicycle path at the edge. Even the intersections had traffic lights just for bicycles. All of which made driving more interesting than you normally experience in Europe. It also affects the cars and traffic controls that you see on the road.
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Another challenge of traveling in the Netherlands is the language. Almost everyone speaks English to some degree, so communicating once you reach your destination is not an issue. It is getting there that is the challenge. More than once we were confronted with signs that looked like a Scrabble players worst nightmare. How do you make sense of signs like the one we saw below?
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You make a guess and hope no one catches you making a mistake...
After a while, you start to enjoy the confusion and read the signs with an English interpretation of the words. Street signs such as below then lead to a good laugh. That is, what is Open? What is Bare? And what does it have to do with a Toilette?
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When all is said and done, Juli summed it up best in the picture below. In two short days, we had seen enough for a week and need to recover from a wonderful time spent in a beautiful part of the world.
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Page created on 18 Apr 2002