Amsterdam

Steve and I went to Amsterdam, Netherlands for the weekend. It was nothing like we had seen so far. Our immediate impression was CLEAN. Spotless streets and all the buildings were well kept.  We took a tour on Saturday which most of the pictures are about.

Our tour guide, who spoke 7 different languages, took us to the famous windmills, wooden houses and old-fashioned stores of Zaanse Schans, where we visited a wooden clog factory. Next, we drove to the famous fishing villages of Marken and Volendam on the Zuiderzee. On our way we will stopped off at a cheese factory, where Dutch cheeses are still being made in the traditional way.

Our next destination was the picturesque town of Delft for a visit to one of the famous Delft blue potteries. The blue-and-white pottery became famous as a 17th-century duplicate of Chinese porcelain. From Delft we continued our journey to The Hague, former capital of the Netherlands, passing such famous sites as the Houses of Parliament, Peace Palace and the Binnenhof. The Binnenhof (Dutch, literally "inner court"), is a complex of buildings in The Hague. It has been the location of meetings of the Dutch parliament, since 1446, and has been the centre of Dutch politics for many centuries.

The final highlight of our day is a visit to the famous miniature town of Madurodam - Holland in a Nutshell. The canal houses of Amsterdam, the Alkmaar cheese market and parts of the Delta Works are all replicated in minute detail on a 1:25 scale. Windmills turn, ships sail through the harbor and trains travel across the city on the world's largest miniature railway.

I wished we could have seen some tulips however they are only seen 8 weeks out of the year, March, April, and May.