The Vondelpark
Amsterdam's most famous park, stretches all the way from the Leidscheplein to the Amstelveenseweg (road to Amstelveen). On the Overtoom side is the Film Museum, which plays alternative movies. The Music Theater gives many performances free of charge, including the yearly high-season Concertgebouworkest. The park is home to joggers, skaters, couples on dates, tourists and locals.

There is lots of water, which is lovely. But it is a problem to groundskeepers since the park is actually continually sinking. Still, they seem to diguise the fact awfuly well. Tropical birds, including parrots, live in the park. No one says so, but could this be the source of all the Northcountries' old-time pirates' feathered companions.

Dutch buccanneers terrorized England, Newfoundland, the Americas and beyond. In 1665, the folk hero, or pirate, depending on your viewpoint, Admiral De Ruyter sailed into St. John's Harbor and either captured or burned everything. Eight years later, the Dutch recaptured New Amsterdam from the English, who had captured it from them. It was a pretty good piece of real estate. Today it's called New York.

And today the Dutch have eschewed piracy, except occasionally in their room rates, prefering less violent trades. One of those more gentle occupations is the cultivation of some of the most lovely flowers on the planet. Growing in country fields, or cut and groomed in the flower markets on the main streets of Amsterdam, a Holland tulip bouquet is waiting to brighten a room or a life, or bring a smile and a hug from your companion.

This seems a good place to bring up that very gentle method in transportation, the bicycle. You see them by the bajillions, which is a Dutch word meaning 'bajillions'.
They share the right of way with pedestrians, trams, cars, and rickshaws (there are a few pedalcabs in Amsterdam). The Dutch are very used to their flow of traffic, but tourists like you and me are not.
So think twice before renting a bike. You and I are much better off walking, or taking a regular or water taxi.
It's safer for everyone. Besides, there is another problem. I guess there are still some Dutch pirates around, because something like 20 percent of all bikes are stolen each year, or all bikes every 5 years. The cost of the multiple locks
each bike wears can be higher than the price of the bike. Really.

Now on to the Windmills
They are a part of the fantasy mind we all have. We all know about them, that they harvest the wind and grind grain for bread. That in Holland and the Netherlands they also drain the lowlands that dip beneath the level of the North Sea.

The Dutch started using them about 1200 A.D. to mill corn. Somewhere around 1400 they started using them to reclaim wetlands for pasture and farmland. By 1800 there were nearly 10,000 of them in Holland.

De Zaanse Schans A good place to see windmills. You can get there from Amsterdam by train from Centraal Station. Buy yourself a ticket to Koog Zaandijk Station. When you get there, it's a 5 minute walk to Zaanse Schans. Entrance is free, but there are some attractions with fees. It's an village with wooden houses and windmills, museums and workshops. Also a cheese factory.

Zaanse Schans hosts more than 900,000 visitors a year, giving them a taste of how the Dutch lived in the 17th and 18th centuries. Worth the trip just to see a real Dutch windmill.

The Netherlands seem dedicated to keeping much of their heritage. In parts of their cities, they restore rather than tear down great old buildings. They may be more sensible in this than many countries that are preserving some isolated monuments, but are creating a completely modern city around them where the past doesn't really fit.
The Dutch have always had a reputation of being sharp traders.
They may be creating the better bargain for everyone, both themselves and tourists, in this realm, too.

Is it time for you to plan your trip to Europe before things change too much....

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