This morning we awoke a bit early (well early for us since it was 7 am) to get organized for our day excursion. Wes’ chest is bothering him and he feels that he is having a bit of a relapse on the cold so we decided that it was best for him to take the day and relax. If traveling around and lack of rest is causing him to get sick again, we need to rethink our plans. I headed off on my own today while Wes hung around the hotel, slept, read, and was very bored.
Since we had prepaid for our excursions I was left with a spare ticket and asked if I could get a refund. The Tickets and Museums office was really good about it and although they could not give me a refund, they offered to use my ticket for the next person who wanted to buy a ticket. In this way I was able to get a full refund for Wes’ ticket.
We got onto the bus and settled for our drive out of the city. The travel was one that took us through a different area of Amsterdam so I had a chance to view other areas. The lilys in the still water of some of the canals look like they are ready to bloom. In addition I was able to view and study several draw bridges. An interesting sight was a row of trees grown and shaped on wires to create a narrow hedge.
Our first stop was a visit to the largest flower auction in the world at Aalsmeer, FloraHolland. We are told that there is no place on earth that auctions as many flowers and plants as the six locations Aalsmeer, Naaldwijk, Rinjsburg, Venlo, Bleiswijk and Eelde. ForaHolland is a market leader and key player in the international flouriculture sector. The auction provides a hugely diverse selection of flowers and plants provided by the 6,000 grower members. Since this is a cooperative, the members are also the owners. The auction provides the sale of flowers and plants in a variety of combintations for world-wide markets.
International wholesalers and individual market sellers have an opportunity to bid on and buy the flowers.
As we walked along the visitor’s boardwalk above the floor we could look down on the huge warehouse of flowers on trolleys being moved about. The mass array of colors attests to the huge selection of flowers available. I may have got carried away with picture taking as I walked the length of the one warehouse we were allowed to view. My guess is that the warehouse was at least 500 meters long and 300 meters wide – and this was just one of several such buildings. I learned that Holland is noted for its growth of roses and orchids – not tulips as supposed. By the way, tulip bulbs are a major industry of Holland, but not the flowers.
Ok, as we walked along we were given a bit of information about “One Day at the Auction”. Here is a normal day:
- a. 5:00 pm at the Nursery flowers are process for sale and readied to be sent to the auction
- b. 8:00 pm the plants/flowers start the transportation route to the auction from the nurseries
- c. 10:00 pm the plants/flowers arrive at the auction house and are processed
- d. 10:30 pm once the plants/flowers are processed they are organized by type into the appropriate refrigeration units. Different flowers are kept better at different temperatures so this is considered
- e. 4:00 am (NEXT MORNING) the auction quality Inspectors perform random quality controls on the flowers and plants supplied
- f. 6:00 am the Clock - every day thousands of buyers attend the twelve auction halls of FloraHolland. They can read all the information they need on the clock front and bid on the flowers they wish to purchase.
- g. 7:00 am Directly after the flowers and plants are sold they are moved to the distribution area for delivery to the buyers.
- h. 11:00 am the auction customers who buy directly from FloraHolland are given the opportunity to buy direct. This is usually smaller purchasers and vendors who do not want to buy in bulk.
- i. 4:00 pm the flowers are delivered to the auction buyers and ready for sale to the customers. Of course for the international customers the plants/flowers are on planes enroute.
- j. 5:00 pm the process starts again.
We arrived to the auction house with rain and it was raining as we left, but shortly after the rain stopped. I mention this because as we drove through the countryside towards our next destination I had a great chance to see Holland, the country. We passed agricultural fields, pastures, horse rings and riders, canals, dykes and of course historic windmills. Apparently at one time there were over 10,000 windmills in Holland but due to the use of electric pumps to keep the water at bay, there are only 1,000 left today. I should mention that Holland is very flat and we heard quite about about ‘reclaimed’ land and how this was done. At one point we drove on a dyke where the water on one side was almost to the top of the dyke while the houses on the other side were below us and therefore definitely below water level.
Our next destination was Rotterdam where we were given a drive through tour of the city. This city is primarily an industrial city and the harbour, although it is 35 km from the North Sea, is one of the busiest in Europe (3rd at the moment). Rotterdam was virtually destroyed during WWII and was quickly rebuilt after so it is considered to be a ‘modern’ city. Hard to believe that buildings of only 50 years old are considered modern, but this is Europe where many cities have buildings of 500 plus years old. Another comment about Rotterdam was that the architecture was varied without any type of theme. This is explained that with the rapid rebuilding program no thought was put into a theme, just a building. However there are some very interesting looking buildings to be found, like the cubes. For a modern city, this one really had a bit of everything.
We stopped at the Hotel New York which is one of the few buildings left from prior to the WWII in the downtown area. Actually this building had been KLM’s office building until they moved to a newer facility and it was renovated to become a hotel. We were able to get off the bus and walk over to the boardwalk along the river to take several pictures.
We left Rotterdam to head over to Delft, a well-preserved town steeped in history. Our first stop in Delft was at the Delft Blue pottery factory where we enjoyed a tour of the pottery factory. We were shown how the pottery is created and fired using mud from Cornwall, England to have the white colored pottery. Then we were able to go upstairs to the paint shop where we were given a demonstration on how the pottery is hand painted. All authentic Deflt pottery is hand painted, signed and is sold with a certificate of authenticity. The stencil is used with a coal brush to pat on the pattern. Then a black stylus and black ink the pattern is traced in and finally the black ink is used to fill in the pattern. Now we all know that the color of the pattern is blue, and this occurs when the final glaze is applied and the final firing is done. The development of the Delft pottery occurred as a response to the cost of Chinese pottery and an attempt to create an alternative product. The pottery is heavier than the China plates and today just as costly. In addition to the color of blue on the designs, today you can find the pottery with other colors incorporated in the designs. What was interesting is that the blue starts as black but all other colors start as their color and stay that color when fired.
We left the factory and headed downtown Delft to the main square to stop for 90 minutes to have a lunch and walk around this historic town with centuries old buildings and canals. One of the hightlights was the city hall in the square and the cathedral, although I did not enter either one. As we left the town we were shown the remaining of the three original city gates since this had been a totally walled city at one time.
We continued on to De Haag (The Hague) which is the political capital of Holland even though officially Amsterdam is the Capital. In The Hague, we had an extensive city tour passing the Houses of Parliament and the Peace Palace. The Peace Palace is a building situated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is often called the seat of international law because it houses the International Court of Justice (which is the principal judicial body of the United Nations), the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Hague Academy of International Law, and the extensive Peace Palace Library. In addition to hosting these institutions, the Palace is also a regular venue for special events in international policy and law.
We drove pass several consulates but did not see the Canadian Consulate. We had a chance to see the Queen’s work Palace since she has her living palace separate from the work palace. When she is in the ‘office’ her royal flag flies over the palace – it was flying but she did not come out to wave at the bus. Again we had a chance to check out many interesting architectural buildings. Again, the visit was relatively quick, but very interesting.
Our final stop today was at Madurodam, the miniature town. Madurodam is not only an amusement part or exhibition; it is also a war memorial. It was opened in 1952 to commemorate war hero, and resistance fighter, Geroge Maduro who died on February 9, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp. The miniature buildings represent many areas of Holland and the details are astonishing. We only had 45 minutes to walk through the many displays and marvel at the miniature buildings, statues, waterways, dykes, trains, planes, people and towns. I think I could have spent a couple of hours and enjoyed every minute. All that The Netherlands is known for, can be found in Madurodam reconstructed to a scale of 1 to 25. The Amsterdam canal houses, The Domtower in Utrecht, The Binnenhof in The Hague and part of the Deltaworks, just as in real life. This is a must do for anyone visiting the area since the miniatures are exact replicas of Holland’s heritage, history and landmarks so you can leave feeling that you have seen much of what Holland has to offer in one location. By the way, go visit them for real if you have time.
We returned to Amsterdam arriving back at the Central Station shortly after 6 and by the time I walked up to the metro and caught the tram back it was after 7. I know Wes would have enjoyed the excursion but think that the length of time on the go may have tired him even more. He had a good, yet boring day, but was feeling a bit better.
We discussed our plans to head to Berlin tomorrow and then to Hamburg before going to Brussels and decided that if he gets over tired and feels sick from all the travel then we should cancel Berlin and Hamburg. Instead we decided to go directly to Brussels and spend 6 nights there where he can take a much slower pace and hopefully begin to regain his energy so our last two weeks in England will not be exhausting for us. We were able to cancel our hotel in Berlin with a minimum penalty and found a small apartment for 6 nights in Brussels. Tomorrow we will head for Brussels.
More Pictures if you are interested.
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