Holland at Tulip Time

Holland at Tulip Time

This is Page 3 of my travelogue of our late-April 2005 trip to Holland. If you somehow missed pages one and two, click here to go there: Page 1 - Holland at Tulip Time


Day 4 Yet another early wake-up call because we were going to visit the Kroller Muller Museum. Situated in Holland's largest nature preserve, this museum houses paintings and sculpture from many famous artists.



Two of my favorites from the Kroller Muller museum, Van Gogh's "Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin, 1889", and the "Drawbridge at Arles." We took a barge cruise in 2001 that included a visit to Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent the last year of his life. A small museum in the Auberge Ravoux shows a very moving documentary about his last years. Van Gogh is buried in the town's cemetery with his devoted brother, Theo, buried next to him.







We enjoyed our visit to this museum. By noon, we were back on the ship for a five-hour cruise to Heusden. Here are some pictures that I took along the way.










Here we are transitioning through one of the few locks we encountered during daylight hours. You can see from the above left picture that there were quite a few of our fellow shipmates who were interested in the lock process. It's pretty simple really. You go into the lock, the door closes, it fills up with water if your going up, or it lets out water if you're going down. Once you've reached the desired level, the other door opens and you're on your way. Believe me, this can get very boring if you're on a trip from Amsterdam to Budapest passing through many locks each day. Above right shows how little clearance there is between the ship and the lock wall.



Heusden was founded near a castle probably in the 13th century. It was fortified at the end of the 16th and again at the beginning of the 17th centuries by a fortification system which was modern for its time. During the Dutch Golden Age (17th century) it was a famous garrison town. Towards the end of World War II, part of the town was destroyed. Modernist plans in the sixties to level the fortifications and to build multi-story apartment blocks on the outskirts of town were never realized. Instead, a radical restoration plan was adopted in 1965, involving repair of the fortifications, reconstruction of the historical street structure and restoration and reconstruction of buildings. Below is an old map of the town showing the elaborate moat and fortification system.
















Above right and below, views of Heusden's fortifications.















Above right is the last picture taken on our walking tour. It was 7 p.m., and the end of another long day. Local entertainment was brought on board that night, a group of men from the neighborhood who sang seafaring songs. After about two songs, we were ready for bed!

Day 5 The ship left Heusden at 3:30 a.m. and sailed to Rotterdam. We arrived there at 8:00 a.m., and then left the ship for a tour of Delft and The Hague. Our first stop was Delft. The name Delft is synonymous with porcelain, and the town is famous for the blue-and-white pottery that Italian immigrant potters began making there in the 1600s. Delft flourished as the 17th Century headquarters of the Dutch East India Company and was home to one of Holland's greatest painters, Jan Vermeer. We began our time in Delft with a tour of the Royal Delft Factory. The Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles is the only remaining factory of the 32 earthenware factories that were established in Delft in the 17th century.














		Genuine Delft pottery is extremely expensive, because of the hand painting shown above. After the factory tour, we visited the main square of the town which happened to have an open air market in progress. The following pictures were taken in the square and in the surrounding neighborhood.
























		We enjoyed our walk through Delft, but it was time to get back on the bus for a tour of The Hague. For me, there's not much interesting in The Hague. We've been there before, and it wasn't very interesting the first time either. I only took the two pictures below. Below left is a picture of the Peace Palace; and right, is a picture of The World Peace Flame Monument, situated just outside the gates of the Peace Palace.





We returned to Rotterdam at about 1:00 p.m., and we spent the afternoon and night there. Below are some pictures of Rotterdam taken on a short walk from our ship.








There's a lot of modern architecture in Rotterdam. One unique example are the "Cubic Houses" pictured below. We actually were able to go inside one of them, and I can tell you they're not very practical!





Below... What the inside of a cubic house looks like.




		After our short walk, we stopped at an outdoor cafe before returning to the ship for dinner. I guess that our ship stopped in Rotterdam, because it was a good base for our tour to Delft and The Hague. It's a nice city, but its center was completely destroyed in 1940 by German bombers, and there's not much to see but modern buildings.

Day 6 Our ship left Rotterdam at 8:30 a.m. and sailed for about two hours to Schoonhoven. Below are some pictures of us leaving Rotterdam, and some scenes along the river.





Below, the finest group of windmills in all of Holland are in Kinderdijk.








Below, the view from our cabin and our next stop, Schoonhoven. Earlier during the trip, we had the option of leaving the ship at Schoonhoven and taking an optional tour of the town Gouda. We would have done that, but not enough people signed up for the tour. We spent about three hours in Schoonhoven and below are some pictures of our walk through the town.
















We enjoyed our short stay in Schoonhoven. Our ship left there at 2:30 p.m., and sailed to Amsterdam. We arrived in Amsterdam after dinner, and we were taken on a canal cruise. Below are a few pictures from the cruise.






		Above, Amsterdam's Maritime Museum, and a replica of a Dutch East India Company ship. The picture to the left is a fitting end to a very long day. So far, you haven't seen many pictures of tulips in my travelogue, and you're probably wondering why I called it "Holland at Tulip Time." Well, click here to see pictures of our last day in Holland and our visit to Keukenhof Gardens.


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