Amsterdam excursions

South Holland

We can explore the vicinity of Amsterdam by going on bus tours and see most of what will be described below. But a rented car can be convenient on the good and well marked roads of Holland, in addition to giving more freedom to move about without strict time schedules.

Now we are going to visit the south of Holland, including Aalsmeer, Keukenhof, Delft, Haag and Madurodam. The places described are in a distance of only one to three quarters of an hour from the city.

We take A4 south from Amsterdam, pass the airport Schiphol and turn a little later into a side road to Aalsmeer.

Aalsmeer

Hours: Open 8-11:30, closed Saturday & Sunday.

Once a fishing village, now the location of the biggest flower market in the world. We are traveling early as the main action is at 8-10. From a glassed-in gallery we can see down into three auction halls where buyers from all corners of the world sit on banks with a clear view to the stage where the flowers are exhibited.

The buyers have a microphone to ask questions and a button to make offers with. All this is regulated by a computer. The flowers come on rail wagons to the stage. A giant clock above the stage starts and gives the price in units from 100 down to 0. The buyer who first presses his button gets the flowers at the price the clock is showing.

He who is too quick buys to expensively and he who is too slow gets nothing. By this method seven million DFl. change hands each year. Surprisingly it is not tulip that holds first place, but the rose. With this intelligent auction system the lots of the day are sold at an extreme speed and to the greatest amusement of onlookers. Then the flowers go the airport to be exported.

We return to A4, change to A44 and soon take a side road to Lisse. There we arrive at Keukenhof.

Keukenhof

Hours: Open 8-20 end of March – end of May

A flower show and sale on 28 hectares in a beautiful forest. Take note that it is only open two months a year. No one who comes here can forget the ocean of flowers both in hothouses and out in the gardens.

The flowers are tastefully arranged in seemingly endless rows in all the colors of the rainbow, six millions of them. No flower show in the world is as big as this one. Most of the major producers in Holland have a bit of land there.

We now drive south along A44 to Haag and from there on A13 to Delft. We drive to the central market and find a parking place near it.

Delft

We can start our visit to Delft by walking to Oudekerk church and finding restaurant Prinsenkelder opposite the church on the other side of the Oude Delft canal. After lunch we visit the Prinsenhof museum above the restaurant. Both are in the palace of William the Silent of Oranje, who lived here when he was founding the Dutch republic and until he was murdered in 1584.

The center of Delft is one of the most beautiful towns in Holland. We should therefore take time to stroll along the canals to observe the trees on the banks and the nicely curved drawbridges.

There are also some historical buildings to see in Delft.

First we turn our attention to Oudekerk.

Oudekerk Delft

From the first half of the 13th C.

We walk a short way south along Oude Delft and enjoy the canal view. Then we turn left into the market in front of Nieuwe Kerk.

Nieuwe Kerk Delft

The lively market reaches all the way from the church to the town hall. In the market square there still are Boterhuis, the butter house, and Waag, the weights house.

Nieuwe Kerk is a Gothic church from 1430 and had then been a building site for half a century as many churches of that time. It is the resting place of the house of Oranje-Nassau, the Dutch royal dynasty. William the Silent rests there and Queen Beatrix will be buried there when her time comes.

We find the car and head out of Delft on A13, following signposts to De Porceleyne Fles.

Porceleyne Fles

This porcelain became famous at the end of the 16th C., just when the golden age was about to start. It was influenced by porcelain making in Rhineland and Italy. Chinese influence was added in the 17th C. Then Delftware became known the world over. We see here how it is produced.

Blue and white are the dominant colors of Delft porcelain. Many people will find the designs rather old-fashioned. But probably they are meant to stay like that.

Another Dutch porcelain tradition is lesser known even if it is sometimes called a better one. It is Makkum from the northeast of Holland. But international interest is focused on Delft. And Porceleyne Fles is the most important producer in Delft. Therefore the short visit to the town is a good reason to have a look at its production.

We turn around on A13 and return to Haag, all the way to the city center. We try to find a parking place near Binnenhof.

Haag

Haag has many things to see. We start be going to Mauritshuis, then continue to Binnenhof with its Ridderzaal, and end in the suburbs at Madurodam.

Mauritshuis is in front of Binnenhof.

Mauritshuis

Hours: Open 10-17, Sunday 11-17

Built in 1644 in a late Renaissance style, the Mannerist style. It has greatly influenced the history of architecture in Holland and Scandinavia. Initially it was a noblemans house but now it is used for the art collection of the royal family. It contains paintings by Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Breughel and Rubens.

Now we enter the Binnenhof palace complex.

Binnenhof

The central courtyard of the palace is best known for being the place where national hero Oldenbarnevelt was executed in 1619. The place is dominated by the building Ridderzaal.

We enter Ridderzaal.

Ridderzaal

Hours: Open 10-16, July – August 9-16

Built by Count Floris V is 1280 and is thus more than seven centuries old. There the queen of Holland opens parliament every year. She arrives in a golden carriage from her palace on the outskirts of Haag, Huis ten Bosch, the house in the woods.

Ridderzaal is mainly a great hall with powerful beams and stained glass windows. It is often considered to be the most beautiful Gothic building in Northern Europe. Behind it there is another hall, Rolzaal.

Finally we leave Binnenhof by the west gate and walk to the square Groenmarkt in front of the main church, Grotekerk, before we return to our car to follow signs to Madurodam, which is midway between Haag and the ocean resort of Scheveningen. It is easiest to follow first Koningskade and then straight on Ramweg on the canal bank.

Madurodam

A doll house town founded by Maduro in memory of his son who died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945. The small houses are replicas of many famous buildings in Holland, all of them in the scale 1:25. We see the railroad system in working condition, the international airport Schiphol, a canal quarter from Amsterdam and small villages clustering around market places.

In the evening the lights come on in the houses and on the lampposts. Then the garden really sparkles.

If we had more time in Haag we could also visit Vredespaleis, the palace of peace, which is on the other side of the Scheveningen wood, housing the International Court of Justice.

We now continue on our way to Scheveningen.

Scheveningen

Famous for being one of the biggest fishing harbors in Europe, worth a visit.

It is now late and we take the road for a three quarters of an hour trip back to Amsterdam.

North Holland

We plan this one day trip through the area north of Amsterdam for a Friday as it is the day of the weekly cheese market in Alkmaar. On the road we will also visit Zaanse Schans, Volendam and Marken.

We drive directly to Alkmaar, driving on roads A10, then A8 and finally A9. In Alkmaar we find a parking place near the church.

Alkmaar

An old town with many quaint houses.

After sightseeing in Alkmaar center we walk the market street Langestraat to Waag and Kaasmarkt.

Kaasmarkt

Hours: Friday end of April – middle of September 10-12

Cheeses from Edam and Gouda lie in orderly rows on the square. The buyer and seller haggle about the price by clapping their palms together. When agreement is reached the carrier, kaasdragers, come with gondola barrows and load them with cheese, often 160 kilograms at a time. Then they run in a strange step to the scales where the cheese is weighted.

The kaasdragers wear white clothes and red, blue, yellow or green caps according to what chapter of the carriers guild they belong to.

Cheese is not sold this way any more. But the theater goes on, mainly to attract tourists. And the latter like it very much. It is really a nice little play about older times.

Now we turn our attention to the Waag.

Waag

The house of weights, Waag, is an 14th C. church.

We return to the car and drive the same roads most of the way back to Amsterdam. First we make a stop in Zaanstad, where there is Zaandijk with the Zaanse Schans museum.

Zaanse Schans

Since 1950 many old houses and windmills have been transplanted here to show how life was in earlier centuries. The houses are really lived-in and the windmills are in daily use.

This village is around Kalveringdijk canal and a few of its side canals. Most of the houses are of wood, painted green and black and white. The mills have various purposes, such as sawing wood, making paint, vegetable oil and mustard.

The village also has old-fashioned shops, a bakery and a wooden-shoe factory. A boat can be rented for a trip on the river Zaan. This is a romantic setting and we can linger over afternoon coffee at a café on the canal bank.

In the end we must head from Zaanstad toward Amsterdam. On the way we turn to E10 to get to the villages Marken and Volendam on the banks of the inland sea, IJsselmeer.

Volendam

When the bay Zuiderzee was changed into an inland sea IJsselmeer, the fishermen of the villages of Volendam and Marken lost their traditional livelihood. Tourism came to the rescue. The inhabitants live by dressing in national costumes and selling souvenirs to tourists. In reality this is a sham, but the traveler can easily close his eyes to that.

Volendam is on the mainland side and the people are Catholic. The small harbor is charming and more so the quaint little houses behind the main street along the strand.

We take the road to the other village, Marken.

Marken

On an island opposite Volendam, now connected to the mainland by a bridge. The people are Calvinist and wear costumes that are different from those of the Catholics in Volendam. It does not surprise you to find out that they also use another dialect, only a few kilometers away.

The Dutch language is not a lately developed Low German. It is an old language which already during the upheavals in Europe in the wake of the fall of the Roman empire had become a special Germanic language, a near relative to the language of the Anglons and Saxons who settled on the British Islands. Linguistically it is midway between English and German.

We are not in a hurry. When the afternoon passes on, the buses with the tourists leave and we get some peace to stroll around in quiet to inspect the small harbor, the green and black houses and the beautiful embroidery in the window curtains.

Finally we must return for the half an hour trip to Amsterdam.

Utrecht

Road A2 runs for two hours south from Amsterdam to Utrecht, the old university city where the Dutch Republic was proclaimed in 1579 as a defense alliance against Spain. Its university library contains many old manuscripts.

We try to park near the Oude Gracht canal.

Oude Gracht

The coziest place in Utrecht. The bank is on two levels With sidewalk cafés and restaurants protected from automotive traffic.

Schiphol

We usually say good-by to Holland at Schiphol, the international airport on the outskirts of Amsterdam. It is one of the things the Dutch are justly proud of. We shall not forget the duty free shop for years respected for being the best in the world. Wine, spirits and tobacco are less expensive than in most other duty free stores.

We buy smoked eel and wind-dried ham in convenient airtight covers, French patés and Dutch cheeses and some other things for gourmets. We also buy real Havana cigars like Montechristo. They are kept here in special conditions and are available at better prices than elsewhere. Also there is a lot of electronic gadgets. And of course perfumes and flowers.

Every month special discounts are on many goods at the airport.

1984 og 1992

© Jónas Kristjánsson