Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Super Grand Holland Tour

Well that's the name of the tour we joined on 24/6/08. The meeting time was 930 in the morning at Amsterdam Central so it's another day of waking up early again. First stop was De Zaanse Schans, a picturesque windmill village followed by a visit to a local clogmaker in one of the houses.

So here we are.. three windmills in a row!

Souvenir shop. The prices were more expensive than in other shops.

Traditional clogs in different sizes.

This is the clogmaker it's really quite amazing to see how they are made. According to him, these clogs are worn by poor farmers in winter to keep their feet warm because they're too poor to buy boots.

One exquisite pair of clogs.

Next, we visited a typical dutch farmhouse where cheese is stil made in the traditional way.

That's super a lot of cheese!

Anyone wants? haha

Outside the cheese factory. Weather is good.

In the bus, passing by some farms with lots of cows. Do you want to count how many there are? I counted and it was 24! According to the tour guide, if the cows are in the middle of the field, it will not be raining anytime soon but if they're near the canals or water, the weather is likely to be wet.

We then alighted at this place to walk to the harbour to take a boat. On the way there, we past by many pretty little houses with different colours of flowers.

On the boat! Hmm actually it's a ship haha

At the harbour.

And so we reached Delft, the place where pottery is made. Not very interesting probably because I'm not exactly into pottery haha. It would be a different story if there's a chance to shape the clay yourself though.

Hopped on the bus again to the last destination. On the way we past by the International Court of Justice. It's located in Den Haag, the place where the Queen lives and works in. ICJ is really huge and magnificent looks like some sort of a castle. I never knew it was in Holland though. Thought it is in Switzerland or something.