Lest you think I post this so you all go look at my pictures, rest assured it is mostly because I have a small but loyal following (hi Mom!) who likes to see where I've been on my European adventures. I've yet to go through most of the pictures, so there will be more to come! (Yeah, I know, the excitement is unbearable. Snore quietly, please.)
The first day I got there I parked the luggage in a locker at the airport and headed to Tourist Central - Keukenhof Gardens. It's the showplace for Dutch tulips. Now I'm a tourist but I will also admit that the gardens are very impressive and very beautiful. It's billed as "the most photographed place on earth" and I have to concede they probably have every right to make that claim. Everyone had at least one camera - from cell phones to point and shoots to dSLRs, and in some cases more than one dSLR. And you know me, while everyone was taking pictures of the flowers, I was taking pictures of them taking pictures....
We went to our (Washington) Skagit Valley Tulip Festival which was extremely disappointing this year.
Very VERY few tulips, it was pathetic and a total waste of time.
I'm glad you got to see that stunning display in Amsterdam.
There were a bunch that had already been cut back, so I wonder what it looked like, say, a month ago. They do an EXCELLENT job of planting so that something is in bloom enough to fill the displays throughout the "season" they're open. They close in about two weeks for the year. Really a spectacular place - very nicely laid out, open enough to accomodate the crowds for the most part, and just a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. And thanks for looking!
In addition to tulips, Amsterdam is known for bicycles. They're everywhere. Better yet, there are bike lanes everywhere! When you get outside of the center part of the city, there are even bike ROADS, separate from the road for cars (and the road for buses.) The bike roads have lights. It's pretty darn amazing. Most of the bikes are single speed cruisers with coaster brakes. I'm not entirely sure how anyone knows which bike is theirs, and there are some that have been parked for quite some time. Everyone uses very sturdy locks.
And when you cross a road in Amsterdam, you have to look both ways at least four times - bike lane, car lane, tram/bus lane, other side bike lane. I'm quite surprised I didn't see anyone get hit by a bike or a tram - I'd imagine when tourist season really gets going it gets even more dicey.
Amsterdam has canals. Lots of 'em. As a port city, they needed ways to move goods from warehouses to the port - voila! Canals! Or they had some sort of competition with Venice going on. I suppose that's a possibility.
A couple of nice photo exhibits to visit (more info on the World Press Photo 2009 exhibit on one of the photos from there); a chess game; and random stuff from random places around the city.
Great shots Deb. We are smack in the middle of kitchen renovations ... I have been procrastinating for YEARS ... but will post some shots from Amsterdam over the weekend for sure ...
You made some nice series! Especially the one with the photographers and the bikes. Nice to see your look of Amsterdam! I like the exhibition photos. Visited both, but made no photos.
Amsterdam has canals. Lots of 'em. As a port city, they needed ways to move goods from warehouses to the port - voila! Canals! Or they had some sort of competition with Venice going on. I suppose that's a possibility.
It's a matter of being a city built entirely at (or even below) sea level, actually. In the days before the machines, canals, where it was possible to build them, were by far the most effective way of moving stuff around. So Amsterdam and Venice BOTH became major ports *because* the canals were possible...
