Amsterdam and Environs

On Thursday through Saturday, April 17 - 19, Kathleen and I traveled to Keukenhof, Amsterdam, and Utrecht, Netherlands. This section is devoted to those three places.

Keukenhof is an area about 30 kilometers southwest of central Amsterdam. It is famous for tulip and other flower production. In the area of Keukenhof, large fields of multicolored flowers are planted and harvested. Tulip bulbs are the main crop. In the area adjacent to the fields is a very large, beautifully landscaped area of flowers, canals, and trees. It may be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Surely the Garden of Eden couldn't have been more beautiful. You can't imagine the fragrances drifting through the air! A brochure says, "More than 7 million bulbs - tulips, narcissi, hyacinths, lilies, gerberas, and orchids - are found at Keukenhof, the best the Dutch ornamental plant industry has to offer. Spread over 32 hectares, the park offers colorful flowerbeds, set among age-old trees and indoor pavilions with changing exhibitions.

From 1401 to 1436, Jacoba van Beieren, Countess of Holland, owned the area where Keukenhof is located. The basin design for the present park was made in 1850 by Zocher, the architect of the Amsterdam Vondelpark. In 1949, a group of bulb growers and exporters decided to transform the park into a flower exhibition as it is today.
Amsterdam is a beautiful city, especially those area adjacent to canals and other waterways. Central Amsterdam focuses on the Centraal Train Station, the Dam Square, and the streets between the station and the Dam Square. Beyond the center is the city's beauty - those streets adjacent to canals. The next set of photos are of Amsterdam. They should give you a typical tourist's view of the city.
The is Amsterdam's Centraal Train Station. As you can see, it is very large with hundreds of trains per day entering and departing. Right behind the station is the oldest harbor area of the city. In front of the station is an intricate layout of canals and narrow streets.
Like many other European cities, Amsterdam has its fair share of museums. This is, perhaps, the largest in the city. It is the Rijksmuseum. Just behind me is the Van Gogh Museum - of course full of paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.
One of the great pleasures of Amsterdam is riding on one of the many canal tours. The next several photos are taken of canals and from canals. You can enjoy the wonderful Amsterdam scenes.
This is the old Amsterdam harbor. Most of the harbor activity has moved to the northwest to Zaandam and beyond. Of course, Rotterdam, to the southwest, is the largest port in the Netherlands and the world.

On our way back from Amsterdam, we stopped in Utrecht. We had heard how pretty it was, so we decided to check it out. The following photos and descriptions are of Utrecht, located about 30 minutes south and slightly east of Amsterdam. But first, a little history.

Utrecht is a city which is almost two thousand years old and was founded in 48 A.D. by the Romans. In the 8th century an English Benedictine monk came to Utrecht from where he taught Christianity. Thus Utrecht soon became the most important Christian center of the sparsely populated areas north of the Rhine. For centuries, Utrecht was the largest and only city of importance in the northern part of the Netherlands. What you will see below, among other things, are places along a self-guided tour of the old central city.
When we arrived in Utrecht, we exited a very large and modern train station. Within the station was a very modern shopping mall through which we walked to get to the center of the city. When entered the old city, we came to this market, located on an old bridge. In the Middle Ages the bridges in Utrecht were used as market places.
Walking away from the market bridge, we walked down this street. It represents many other streets in Utrecht.
This is the Oudkerkhof street - one of the "fashionable" shopping streets in the old city center.
Religion in the northern part of the Netherlands was greatly affected by the Protestant Reformation. Many church buildings that were originally Roman Catholic were taken over by a variety of Protestant denominations. St. Peter's church, shown here, was one of them.
There are five churches located in such a way to form a cross. This, the Utrecht cathedral, formerly Roman Catholic, is at the center of the cross. This shows a garden area in the courtyard of the cathedral and some of the ornate construction detail.
Adjacent to the cathedral is the Dom Tower. At one point it was actually part of the cathedral, but in 1674, during a catastrophic storm, the nave of the church caved in. The Dom square, as it is now called, is the area between the tower and the church. This tower is the highest church tower in the Netherlands at 112 meters.
The only Dutch Pope, Pope Adrianus, ordered this house to be built. It is know as "Pope's House."
The canals in central Utrecht add to the city's beauty. I thought that the canals were rather low and wondered if the city had been built up or if it was located on a slight rise in an area of the Netherlands that is really very flat and often below sealevel.
This photograph was taken from Maartensbrug - Martin's Bridge. Some of the canals in Utrecht also had wharves along their banks. You can see that here along the left bank of this canal. The wharves and wharf cellars are unique in Europe. Centuries ago people shipped in their goods at the wharves. Nowadays you will find restaurants and cafes at the low-levelled street adjacent to the water.
This is another good view of the canal and wharf.
This is a castle-like house, built of gray brick and with numerous red shutters. In the Middle Ages, the wealthy Zoudenbalch family owned several neighboring houses here and covered them with one facade.

As we walked passed the Winkel van Sinkel department store, I noted that it should be called the Winkel van Stinkel because at that point, we smelled a terrible sewage-type oder. As we continued to walk, we came to this bridge and this large building. This building the citadel of Oudaen. This so-called "city castle" was built in 1320, and contains a beer brewery in its cellar.

Well, that's Utrecht. I hope you have enjoyed the tour.

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