Holiday to The Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Part 4

 A round up of our holiday. The day we left we went out for the morning to another shopping area near The Palace Square. We checked out of the hotel after having had a lovely English  Breakfast in a nearby coffee shop, which was really small but packed in a lot of people.

We found a reminder of home, with the smell, then sight of Lush (Lush has several production units in Poole). A few doors away was a Lego store.

The Laughing Cavalier and Starry Night

Along with Van Gogh’s self portrait

M C Escher’s Infinite Staircase

As well as Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring

A close up of the frame with different shades of yellow Lego bricks.  The pieces were artworks in themselves with thousands of bricks used. Each turn in the shop had something that made you think ‘How on earth did they do that?’.

After a wander round we headed back to the hotel to await our taxi to the airport,  but I took the last few pictures of the hotel we stayed in. The gorgeous lights and grand chandelier with the elaborate French Style clock (which wasn’t working at the time and not sure if it does).

Then our flight back to Southampton and home.

Holiday In The Netherlands 🇳🇱 Part 3

 This is the last part of our holiday, spending the last few days in Amsterdam after the river cruise.  The weather was awful for the most part - rain, more rain, hailstones - it didn’t cheer up until last day. We checked in to the hotel, then walked to the Central station where there was information then took one of the free ferries over to The Eye Filmmuseum.  It is a modern museum with amazing architecture but not a lot of content, so took the ferry back, but that was an experience. You can see from the photos below how awful the weather was.

We purchased a day ticket on an app called I Amsterdam, which we used the next day to visit museums and use the tram system.  First we visited the Canal Museum, which informed about the reason for the canals to cope with the ever expanding population in the city. It was in one of the grander houses but it had a beautiful garden.

From there we visited the Rijksmuseum, famed for its classic paintings but Rembrandt and Vermeer (and other artists too, there was just so much to see and so busy with people that we needed timed tickets.  The old part of the building had lovely stained glass windows and floor mosaics 

We walked up to the Van Gogh Museum, but made the mistake of not getting a timed ticket first.  In the Museum Quarter is MoCo or Modern Contemporary Museum.  This is in an Arts and Crafts style building  and contained works from Robbie Williams (yes, the singer formerly with Take That), Andy Warhol, Banksy and others. It also had a Digital Immersive art, with lights and mirrors, some items hanging or being screened. This was quite busy with people trying to get out of the rain (like us).

One of the artworks by Robbie Williams 

Above is a piece by Damien Hurst with the stained glass windows of the museum building.

In the immersive art.  This was fascinating.  It was an unexpected but enjoyable visit. 

The following day we were back at Amsterdam Central station to take the train to Utrecht to get the shuttle train to Utrecht Maliebaan old station, where the Dutch Railway Museum is housed.

The outside of the old station, which is currently being renovated.

A British locomotive, once on a line from Sheffield to Manchester.

The signal box. David visited and had a chat with the volunteer signalman. Below are more locomotives from the past 

After returning to Utrecht then to Amsterdam, we had escape another hailstorm by running into McDonald’s after the storm. Walking across the Palace Square there were guards outside as they were preparing for King Willem Alexander to stay at the Palace.  We found out the next day that he was to be visited by King Felipe of Spain, but we didn’t see any of the royals,

On our walks around the city mostly on the bridges were bikes decorated with flowers by the Flower Bike Man.

(Excuse my finger here)

I think I will leave that here and will round up with a part 4.

Holiday in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 Part 2

 In the last post we got as far as the Kinderdijk windmills, after which the ship sailed towards Amsterdam for the excursion to Keukenhof Gardens. The site is only open for 6 - 8 weeks and on the Sunday morning of our visit we had an early start and the gardens got busier and busier by the time we left on our coach around midday. It is well organised with coach and car parks, even a cycle parks.  There are going to be lots of photos.

Theses tulips with multiple petals are called Ice Cream varieties, but these look almost like peonies.

There were still daffodils and grape hyacinths in flower.

The above photos were all outside and the weather was lovely and warm.  After exploring the gardens we went into the indoor spaces. The Willem-Alexander greenhouse had new species of tulips and other plants, such as Kalenchoe (sorry think that’s how it’s spelt) and Amaryllis.

And we went to the Orchid house, which was really busy.

Then back outside from which we could see the tulip fields

Try playing ‘Tulips from Amsterdam’? 

And a kind tourist took a photo of us both.

It was a lovely morning followed by a canal cruise in the afternoon, which I didn’t take photos of.  There will be more in the Amsterdam which will follow next.