The Reese Family: Holland: Keukenhof, The Hague, and Delft

Monday, April 30 was Queen’s Day in the Netherlands. This is their national holiday to celebrate the birthday of Queen Beatrix. It is a day of wearing orange, partying, and free markets (yard sales…this is the only day of the year that it is legal to have a yard sale). We knew that anywhere we went would be really crowded, but it was a gorgeous day so we decided to go to Keukenhof. This is a flower garden that is used to showcase all the different varieties of tulips that are grown in the Netherlands. It is only open for about a month while the tulips are in bloom. We purposely booked our trip so we could be there to see the tulips. Since we only had one day of good weather on our trip to the Netherlands, we tried to tae advantage of it…so did everyother tourist in the country. It was packed, but we had a great time. The flowers were absolutely beautiful. There are hundreds of different kinds of tulips and other flowers at Keukenhof. I cannot emphasize how many different kinds we saw. They have rows and rows of small flower patches throughout the garden to show you the variety of flowers that are grown there. There garden overlooks several fields of tulips growing in rows too. I loved the tulip fields. It was really neat because as we took the train to different parts of the country, we would see tulip fields along the way. They were fun to spot and they were so gorgeous! I loved the bright colored ones like reds and yellows because they stood out the most.

Ainsley got a free BK hat for Queen's day, she insisted on wearing it all day. She looked pretty cute though and people kept telling her that they loved her crown.

I loved the rows of bright colored tulips!

Ainsley on top of the windmill with Grandpa and Grandma Butler

After spending several hours at Keukenhof, we headed back to the Hague. We got some lunch and then immediately took the train out to Delft. Delft is smaller town known for its Royal Delft Porcelin factory. It makes the famous handpainted blue and white porcelain. Since my dad had served his mission in the Netherlands, he brought back several pieces of Delftware and they always decorated our home. My mom had also been to Holland twice over the past ten years and so we were really familiar with the blue and white porcelain at our house. We went to the factory to see how it is made. They fire the pottery and then master painters hand paint designs onto the porcelain. While they paint it, it is black but when it is fired again, it turns blue. Even though it was a holiday and most of the factory workers were not working, we were able to see a couple of different artists working on different pieces. It was really neat.

After seeing the factory, we walked to the center of Delft. From her previous trips to Holland, my mom described Delft as a quiet, quaint Dutch city with small canals and shops. But when we got to the town center, it was anything but quiet. Since it was Queen’s Day, there was a huge celebration going on in the plaza. There were two different stages with musicians playing. There were food stands, vendors, and yard sales everywhere and there were hundreds of people dressed in orange. It was loud and crowded. We quickly grabbed one souvenir from a shop and headed towards the train. My mom stopped at a yard sale and scored an antique pair of wooden ice-skates for her antique collection.

From Delft, we took the train out to Scheveningen. This is a beach along the North Sea near the town of the Hague. We were all starving so we first grabbed some dinner at a local fish stand. We had fish and chips that were fresh and delicious! Then we walked along the beach. This was Sam’s first time seeing the ocean and Ainsley’s second time. We all stuck our toes in the ocean for a bit but it was pretty cold. I didn’t think Ainsley would like jumping the waves because her first experience at the ocean was in North Carolina when she was two and she had cried anytime we got her close to the water. This time was the opposite. She loved it and even though it was freezing, she was brave and kept wanting me to walk with her up to the waves. After braving the cold for a few minutes, we found a spot on the beach to dig in the sand. Ainsley and Sam both had a blast building a sandcastle. Sam also enjoyed eating the sand and he had a hard time getting him to stop sticking it in his mouth. After the sandcastle, we gathered a few seashells and then caught the train back to our hotel. We passed the Peace Palace along the way which is where the UN holds its International Criminal Court. Unfortunately the palace was closed for renovations while we were there, so we weren’t able to go inside.

Our last day in the Netherlands was Tuesday. We had planned to walk around and see the rest of the Hague before we caught out trains around noon. It was raining really hard though. We walked around the government buildings. Then we walked to the train station. Tom headed back home to Hildesheim for work and my parents and I headed to Cologne and then down the Rhine River.