Holland

  We only spent a short amount of time in Holland.  We stayed overnight two nights in Amsterdam (Saturday and Sunday).  Melissa and I spent one day walking around the city while Kathy was at a wedding.  We enjoyed our time in Amsterdam, but the whole trip to Holland was a bit of a whirlwind so we never quite settled into a groove.

  It may seem strange that this is noteworthy, but I think it's a good sample of the people of Holland.  Not to mention that it stands out in my mind as one of the signature moments of the vacation (along with eating a baguette along the Seine, rowing on the Grand Canal at Versailles and having a coffee in Parc de Bruxelles) While Melissa and I were getting our bearings near Westerkerk (we walked around it like five times trying to find a way in.  Turns out it's not open on Saturdays) we ended up at a hot dog stand right next to the church.  The fellow running the stand spoke perfect English, and struck up a conversation with us about where we were from.  When I went back for napkins we even got into some politics.  Then as Melissa and I were eating at a bench nearby he came over and offered to take our picture (the picture's included in the "People" section).

  On our second day in Holland, a coworker and friend (Peter) who lives in Delft (yes, that Delft) drove into Amsterdam with his wife and daughter, picked us up and took us on a tour.  He did a lot of driving that day!  First we went to Volundam which was a fishing center before the inner sea was cut off from the ocean.  We had a coffee and snack at a spot overlooking the water then walked around town a bit.  From there we went on to Enkhuizen which has what is refered to as an "open air museum."  It's similar in concept to Sturbridge village or Plimouth Plantation here in Massachusetts.  It was a great way to spend the day.  On the way home, we took a drive searching for the elusive (as it turned out) "largest continuous tulip fields in Holland" but I'm not sure we ever found it.  Although there were plenty of tulip fields to be found.

  On our last day, we visited Keukenhof.  I'm not really sure how to describe it.  But basically it's something around 50 acres of gardens- primarily tulip.  The different areas of plantings are sponsored by different companies although the sponsorship is pretty subtle and doesn't take away from anything.  The gardens were amazing.  I took something like 500+ pictures that day.  And I probably could have taken more.  We got lucky that we happened to be in Holland during the short time the gardens are open; another happy accident!

  All in all, we had a great time in Holland.  It was a good mix of activities and Peter and his family's help made it better than it could possibly have been otherwise.

Click here for pictures of while driving around Holland