Day 4...The Hague Temple and The Anne Frank Home

We went to two special places on Saturday in The Netherlands...The Hague Temple and the Home of Anne Frank.  Both experiences were  good, though very different also.  I'm so glad we spent the day learning once again!

The Hague Temple

We saw that there was a temple in The Netherlands...in The Hague, so we set out to find it on Saturday morning.  Google said it would take less than an hour to travel by car from Amsterdam to The Hague.

We took a train, then transferred to a tram, and then on to a bus...Mark asked the bus driver if he knew where the Mormon Temple was...and he said (in English) of course!  We were happy!
We were dropped off at the bus stop below and walked a short distance into the front doors.

As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we can attend temples that are scattered around the world (currently the church has 137 operating throughout the world).  

The workers at the temple spoke Dutch and a few even spoke English.

I was glad that we successfully found the temple and attended on this blustery spring day.

The grounds of the temple in the Netherlands were also beautiful...filled with many spring flowers in bloom.

We were ready to return to Amsterdam...We waited at the bus stop across the street..and though cold and windy the time flew by a littler quicker  because of a friendly man from South Africa who had seen us in the temple.

The countryside to and from Amsterdam was  beautiful...lots of green grass, a few windmills, and beautiful homes. Now we were ready to see another special place.

********************************

I had never read the story of Anne Frank when I was a young girl in school, though it was a required reading for my children. I had down loaded the story on my Kindle thinking I would read it one day.  A number of weeks ago, I began reading her story.

Knowing that the Anne Frank Home was in Amsterdam, I was hoping to find it while here and take a tour.   Though cool and rainy, we stood in a line (for only 30 minutes) along with many other tourists in order to go inside her home.  We read this site was one of the most toured sites in all of Amsterdam.

Here is view of the church next to her home....The Westerkerk.  Anne Frank often talks about the bells she heard daily coming from this church. They consistently brought her comfort.

An aerial view of Amsterdam during the 1940's near the home of Anne Frank.  The blue/green highlighted building is where her family was in hiding for 2 years.

Here is  a picture of the diary that Anne was given on her 13th birthday. This is where she began recording her thoughts, feelings and experiences during the 2 years that her family was in hiding.

The Anne Frank home is empty inside except for some descriptions, and video recordings that you can view.  There are also a few items left on the walls and protected with glass that were at the home when Anne and her family were there.   

I appreciated the layout, the steep staircases, and the steps I walked.  Now when I am reading her story...this is the place I picture.

I love the picture below. Of the eight people that were hiding, only Anne's father Otto Frank survived. Here he is back inside their home in Amsterdam after the war was over.  

What a great Saturday it has been for us in The Netherlands!

Canals and Van Gogh...in Amsterdam

Upon arriving back to Amsterdam from our Keukenhof tour, we had plenty of daylight and stamina left to explore and eat.  We went on a 70 minute canal ride and toured the Van Gogh museum. 

As the bus drove back into Amsterdam from Keukenhof, we passed the front of Dam Square - the most famous square in Holland.  The tall white obelisk is a national monument in memory of those who lost their lives in the Second World War.

This is where Amsterdam became a fishing village in 1270...the villagers built a dam to stop the flow of the Amstel river at this location...and to this day it is a famous meeting spot for young people, tours and important events in the city.

We ate at another pancake house close by...I once again had an enormous, sweet pancake, and Mark had a cheese and bacon pancake... 

...loved my Dutch pancake! 

 

But Mark not so much.  (Mark didn't like his so much, that is!)

The canals in Amsterdam are beautiful.  We went on a 70-minute canal ride in and around the city....and traveled through just a small part of the more than 100 kilometers of canals. 

The canals have been a part of the city's landscape since the early 14th century!

Originally three semi-circular canals were built, starting at the city center near the train station and spanning the width of the city.  Hundreds of narrower canals fanned out from these...over 1,200 canals in all.

Along our tour we saw many tall and narrow homes that are characteristic of this area. 

This is the Westerkerk...the church that has the highest bell tower in Amsterdam, and is located almost next to the home of Anne Frank. 

We learned that just underneath the top eave of each home or building, there is a beam protruding out from the facade.  You can see the beams at the tops of the buildings in the picture below.

Large hooks are attached to the bottom of the beams.  People would, and still do thread rope through the hook, and the bottom of the rope is tied to cargo that is then hoisted up to the higher floors of the building by pulling on the other end of the rope.  Below we see a rope hanging from a hook, and workers that have used the rope for hoisting. 

There are over 1,500 bridges that span the hundreds of canals.

The bridges and canals are quite beautiful, and also very useful.  The usefulness of the bridges is obvious, and the canals are useful for getting around the city and for recreation - parades, boating, ice skating. For some, the canals are where they live...in their houseboats...over 1,000 of them!

Over 25% of the people in Amsterdam don't own a car...we were told that it is very hard to find parking spaces....and bikes have the right of way in this city.

Below is the first two "I amsterdam" sculpture-signs in the city. This one is across the harbor from the Central Station....

 ....and the second one (below) is near the Van Gogh and Rijksmuseums.  They are popular signs...we had a hard time getting a picture without too many tourists in the shot.  There is a Pickett here if you look closely enough!

Back to the canal tour, we traveled in the harbor where we saw a few larger ships anchored.

Amsterdam is often referred to as "Venice of the North". We were so glad we could experience traveling on these amazing canals!

Our last activity of the day was a self-guided tour of the Van Gogh museum.

This museum has the largest collection of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh in the world...over 200 paintings and hundreds of drawings and letters from this artist.

 Visitors are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but here are snapshots of some of my favorite postcards.

I really liked taking this tour! We hadn't known much about Van Gogh previously, aside from recognizing some of his art work.

We learned how Vincent Van Gogh became an artist, how his style developed and how he was influenced by other artists. 

We understood and appreciated this artist more after seeing and hearing about some of his creations.

The picture below is my favorite...

What a great day we have had in Holland!

Keukenhof Gardens... AKA ..."Tulip Heaven"

Day 3 in Amsterdam began early for us....with a one hour bus ride to the Keukenhof Gardens!

One of the reasons we chose to come to Amsterdam at this time of year was to see the beautiful gardens in Keukenhof. The gardens are only open 8 weeks out of the year...the end of March until the end of May...with April being the busiest time for tourists and the best time to see the flowers in bloom.

We were not disappointed....we were in "tulip heaven" and we had almost a full day of sunshine! 

Traveling away from Amsterdam, we saw one of only five windmills remaining in the city boundaries - De Gooyer Windmill.  It was built around 1725 for the purpose of grinding wheat, and its vanes were very modern for its time.

As we approached Keukenhof we began to see brightly colored strips of land....the flower fields were amazing!  Also amazing is that the colors in real life are even more vibrant than the bright colors in these photos.

We learned that these flower fields are used to produce bulbs....thousands and thousands of bulbs. They are not used in the Keukenhof Gardens but are exported around the world.  Holland produces 80% of all flower bulbs in the world.

The tulip plants below were still covered with plastic, for a greenhouse effect.  It would be interesting to seem them in full bloom.

As we approached the bus parking lot we saw that we would not be alone at the gardens.  There were already a couple hundred buses in the parking lot just an hour after the gardens opened!  We were glad that we didn't arrive any later, and would now be able to explore on our own for the next 3 hours.

Each year, a country is chosen to be honored at the gardens.  This year the chosen country was "Poland...the Heart of Europe"!

We spent 3 hours...walking, oohing, aaahing, taking pictures and being amazed at so much beauty!

Below is a flower bed with a direct connection to Poland.  Do you recognize the profile?  It's Poland's favorite son, Frederic Chopin - depicted in tulips!

The park used to be a hunting ground in the 15th century...since 1949 it is an historic park with tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and other spring bulbs.

It's the largest bulb park in the world!

Something we saw and heard over and over again....people speaking different languages, from all over the world....it doesn't matter where they come from - people love beautiful sights, beautiful and bright flowers, and taking pictures in and around them!

We heard so many languages...I would often ask Mark...what language do you think they are speaking? 

We climbed the windmill at the back of the gardens, and then upon coming down we found a pair of wooden shoes Mark could slip into...a bit big but they were wooden!

We never realized tulips and daffodils came in so many different colors, shades and structure!  By structure I mean that tulips were different sizes, some with tall narrow petals and some with shorter and wider petals.  Also, while most of the tulips had smooth edges on the petals, some had edges that grew in a jagged or shaggy pattern.

Over 7 million bulbs are hand planted into this garden each year!  And 4.5 million of them are tulips!

The Keukenhof Gardens are considered the most beautiful in all the world during the spring...it's the 63rd year and how lucky we were to be here at this time!

We heard the Keukenhof Gardens is the most photographed place in the world....we can see why.

Below are Forget-Me-Nots....I had been seeing these flowers and just had to ask one of the grounds crew if they were what I thought they were. Of course I didn't know how to say "Do you speak English" or "Forget-Me-Not" in Dutch, but the gardener asked someone else who spoke English and they said, "Yes".... they were Forget-Me-Nots!

I am trying to grow these beautiful flowers from seed...and this is how I want them to look in my yard one day!

A river of hyacinths! I told Mark that I had seen a similar view on the internet....and this truly does look as bright and stunning as the pictures online!

Hyacinths were used throughout the gardens to border the tulips and daffodils.

We were happy with the sunshine...but grateful we had clouds once in a while too.

As if a sea of purple tulips....

We stopped for a Dutch snack - stroopwafels - which are waffles thinner than crepes, with a toffee syrup spread between them sandwich-sytle...yummy!

We paused from flower gazing so Mark could cross this bridge.  It doesn't look too high or difficult...but since there are no handrails, balance is the key.  I was not about to try it....I could have easily ended up in the water.

I wish I had shot a photo of Mark near the top of the first hill...he said that was the hardest part...I was wondering why he waited there for a while, and now I know.

The second hill to climb was somehow easier...but then...

....what you don't see is the bridge sinking into the water.  

If you wait too long, your feet are soaked!  Mark had fun!

The park covers over 32 hectares or 80 acres (about 2.5 acres for 1 hectare).  We covered a lot of area during our 3 hours...I'm sure we missed some areas but for our first time here...we saw a lot!

The purple and gold tulips above reminded Mark of our LSU friends back in the U.S.

A bed of tulips that haven't bloomed yet.

When we are both in the picture, we are using a telescoping rod with a bolt to hold the camera...we purchased it in a department store in Houston, and it drew curious and impressed looks from both the locals and tourists as we used it.

Once the park closes for the season, all the flowers and bulbs are dug up and thrown out.

The planting of new bulbs begins every Autumn.  It takes about 2 months to plant the 7 million bulbs in this park.  The layout of the gardens is changed every year by the landscape architecture staff that works year-round.

More than once I thought....could heaven be like this? There was so much tranquility, peace and beauty here....

We absolutely loved our visit to the beautiful gardens of Keukenhof, The Netherlands!

It has been a lovely day in Holland.