After we spent a week in Holland this year, I decided that I would make up a web page with the details of our trip, and albums made up of some of the 500 photos that I took that week.

We had decided to go at the start of September, as there was a flower festival at a place called Alsameer near Schipol airport. With the assistance of a pen pal, Henny who lives there, we booked a chalet about a hours drive from Alsameer.

The booking went well at first, and I paid for the holiday well in advance. I phoned two weeks before to check that everything was OK with the booking, and was told that it was. Henny then phoned the day before to check on directions, only to be told that they had sent me a pack containing the directions that I would need, and a code number to get into the chalet park.

Nothing had come through the post, so Henny had to get onto the firm again, and this time she got some sense from them, and directions. When we met her at Schipol, she originally was going to tell me how to get there, then make her way home by train. I then suggested, that she come with us, and I would take her home afterward in case of problems. It was a good job as well, because without her, I would never have found the place, and certainly could not have spoken to the caretaker, who did not speak English.

 This is the first day that we had out in Holland, and was the main reason for booking the trip. We had hoped to get more days there, but time was against us in the end.

Alsameer has a flower festival every year, and it now has international acclaim. And rightly so, as it is incredible. The work that is done on the floats, and cars in fantastic, and must take most of the year to think up. They work for two days and nights getting the floats ready for the display, then hope for good weather.http://www.aalsmeer.nl/00004.asp 

When we were there, it was very windy, but as it had been raining during the morning, we were lucky that it stopped in time for us when we got there. There was a long line of colourful flower filled floats, that just seemed to go on and on. They were all different, and must have taken an incredible amount of planning to get them right. I have put links to all photo albums at the bottom The day after that we spent the day we spent with Henny in her home. After arriving and having a chat, we went to the town of Lelystad that Henny lives in. This along with all the surrounding area has been reclaimed from the sea by the clever Dutch engineers, and is, as the rest of Holland as flat as a pancake.

We went first to a shopping mall called 'Bravatia'. This was the nearest to her, and as theses places are, quite popular. Although while we were there, it was very quiet. There were no great bargains to be had, as Holland is quite expensive for clothes.

We then went on to the town centre, stopping to see the harbour along the way. A nice town with plenty of shops, and no traffic at all. Plenty of bicycles though!

Other photos in the album were taken the day we stopped in Amsterdam, and then others that do not fit in the albums. To see the photos click on the link below.

The next trip was to the windmills of Kinderjik. This is fairly near Rotterdam about a one and a half hour drive away. We eventually found it after getting a bit lost, and it was well worth the journey. We went on a 30 minute boat ride and I took some of the photos on that as well as the couple of panoramas.

This area is famous for the windmills, and they are still in use today. http://www.kinderdijk.nl/ This is the English web site for it. Most are used now as homes, and they are also used to drain the water from the marshes, and keep the levels down.

This day we travelled the 150 km to Emmen to the big zoo that they have there. http://www.zoo-emmen.nl/nl/home/home.htm This is the Dutch language web page.

When we eventually got there, I parked the car and then we started what was a long walk to the Zoo. After paying to get it, we found that the zoo it split into two parts, and the one we were in was the smallest of them. It really was quite small as well, with only about seven different types of animals. After going around and having a coffee, we decided to move on to the next one. By this time, Mary's sister Margaret, who does not walk very well, decided that she could not walk there and would stay in the small one and wait for us.

The walk to the other one was a fair way, I would imagine the best part of a quarter if a mile across the other side of the town, so it was a good job that she never did try it.

This zoo is in fact in the town centre, and if we had parked in a different place, we could have walked there a lot quicker. However who knows that at the time?

This last page is about the day out we had on the Thursday before we left Holland. We had discovered that there was a Dolphinarium very near where Henny lives in a place called Harderwijk,http://www.dolfinarium.nl/ As Margaret, Mary's sister is mad on Dolphins, we decided to visit the show.

Henny had also told me of the Palace of Loos that was nearby,http://www.gardenvisit.com/ge/hetloo.htm  and I wanted to go to see that before we headed of home.

The Dolphinarium was not a huge place, but there were seals, sea lions, dolphins of course, and the main dolphin display took place in a large indoor arena that could seat at least 1500 and possibly 2000 people.

I took plenty of photos, and most came out well, and of course took plenty of the dolphin show. They however did not come out at all!. The dolphins were moving so fast, by the time my camera had focused, they had finished. Very disappointing to say the least. However to see the photos that did come out, just check out the album at the bottom of the page.

After we finished with the dolphin show, I wanted to get on to the Palace. This is something that I wanted to see, but the time was getting on, and by the time we got there it was 4 pm, and the Palace closed at 5 pm. However we had a hour, and I was determined to make the most of that. The Palace is a fair walk from the entrance, but they do have excellent disabled access when you get there, with a lift to all floors from a side door.

We managed to see the first floor, but as I have said, we were running late, and we wanted to see the magnificent gardens at the rear as well. These were stupendous, and I could have stayed there all day. To see the photos taken at the palace, click on the album link below.

Alsameer flower festival

Emmen Zoo

Kiinderdijk

Dolphins at Harderwijk

The Palace de Loos in Holland

Days out in Holland