Dutch Shepherd Forum

Sorry - no dogs in these photo's...

Recently went to the Netherlands to visit family and have fun in Amsterdam for Koninginnedag. Took my older digital camera and problems with the batteries throughout the trip so I didn't take as many photo's as I usually would. No family in this batch of photo's so that excluded the one dog that I got several pictures of as well...

Judith - here you go:

Keukenhof http://www.keukenhof.nl is a great place to go see the flowers in bloom in the spring.

the Alkmaar cheese market. Only on Friday mornings for the warm months.

Amsterdam - Koninginnedag or Queensday - They wisely celebrate the Queen's birthday at the end of April when the weather is nice instead of on her real birthday in January. April 30th is the former Queen's birthday...

Heard on the news that 800,000 people showed up for the festivities in Amsterdam. The truly crowded places were SO crowded that I didn't even try to get my camera out...

Great pictures Eric. Did you enjoy your stay here?

Jan,

I had a good time. Didn't sleep well the first 1/2 of the trip though...sharing a room with my brother is not conducive to restful sleep. He snores VERY loudly.

It was very nice seeing my cousins from both sides of the family.

Great pictures, Eric! Thanks for sharing them.

Excuse my ignorance, but is orange the Dutch equivalent of our red, white and blue?

nice pics!

love the pics!

@ leih; the Dutch flag is red-white-blue but our royal family's last name is "van Oranje" meaning "off orange" so the "second" colour of Holland is orange. On the more serious occasions you'll see the official flag and people do not dress up, but in festivities the flag is joined by an orange pennant and people dress up in orange, like for soccer games and Queensday.

Excellent pictures! Thanks for sharing

ow Eric, the plant is indeed called Blue Rain, or in Latin Wisteria sinensis, one of my favourites

Cool pics! Thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing!!

Those are excellent photos, Eric! Thanks so much for sharing as I probably will never have the good fortune/opportunity to experience this. I too was going to ask about all the orange. Public urinals? Hum?? Looks like the Dutch definitely know how to have a great time. Love the boat parties. Is there one cheese making facility that makes all that cheese or what is the story on that? A local friend has goats and makes a variety of cheeses. This was very interesting and thanks again.

GSDNanny wrote: Is there one cheese making facility that makes all that cheese or what is the story on that? A local friend has goats and makes a variety of cheeses. This was very interesting and thanks again.

In Alkmaar they have a tourist event every Friday morning during he warmer months. There are numerous places that make cheese .. but I don't know specifically about the cheese that is used during the Friday morning event. I would presume it is from multiple producers. ...maybe one of the native Dutch can answer that.

icvanstra wrote:

GSDNanny wrote: Is there one cheese making facility that makes all that cheese or what is the story on that? A local friend has goats and makes a variety of cheeses. This was very interesting and thanks again.

In Alkmaar they have a tourist event every Friday morning during he warmer months. There are numerous places that make cheese .. but I don't know specifically about the cheese that is used during the Friday morning event. I would presume it is from multiple producers. ...maybe one of the native Dutch can answer that.

It's from 2 producers, Campina and Cono, they each make several sorts of cheese, young, medium, old etc.

Oh...It took forever to get all the pics to come up, but it was sure worth it. Lovely impressions! Koninginnedag madness, Keukenhof beauty and just plain ole' Holland. Thanks!

@ Leih. Dutch cheese is like Wisconsin cheese over here. Quite a 'famous' export article. The cheese market is a hold over of the old times, now only for tourist purposes. Lots of dairly in Holland (even a Dutch dairy breed: the friesian cow, a holsteiner look alike cousin) and therefore lots of dairy products.