Day 2 - the Grand Tour of Holland

On our second full day in Amsterdam, we signed up for a guided tour of Holland. Five cities in nine hours.

There are a lot of pros and cons to doing these tours.

The pros are that you have someone drive you around and point things out and you get to see a lot of things that you may or may not have seen otherwise.

The cons are that you have to go with a group of people. There's always one or two in the crowd that remind you why you hate people (or maybe that's just me). And, you are at the mercy of the tour guides. They take you to see what they want you to see, which usually means that there will be some "shopping" opportunities.

Such was the tour that we took. The grand tour of Holland consisted of visiting the following cities: Aalsmeer, Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague, Scheveningen and Madurodam - which isn't really even a city but a tourist attraction.

The first stop was Aalsmeer, which is where the daily flower auctions are held. Flowers and plants in general are big business in this part of the country. We stopped in the auction house that was basically a huge warehouse that had thousands of flowers. We missed the actual auction but there were several flowers still around.
Flower auction in AalsmeerStatue outside the flower auction in Aalsmeer.

So we spent about an hour here milling around. There wasn't really anything to do and we didn't get to see how the actual auction worked. I thought this was interesting but we could have left 30 minutes earlier for my taste. We got back on the bus and headed out for Rotterdam.
Three sisters.

On the way to Rotterdam, we got to see a lot of the countryside, which was gorgeous. It's very rural unless you are in one of the cities. There are still a few working windmills. Mostly you see the wind turbines.

Rotterdam Harbor-The Maas River, which is a shipping channel.

Next up on the itinerary was Rotterdam. By the time we got there, the weather had gotten bad and it had started to rain. Rain or not, I would have liked to have spent more time here. Rotterdam was basically destroyed during WWII. Instead rebuilding what they had before, they decided to start with a clean slate and build more modern stuff.
The Euromast- Rotterdam.
WWII Monument - I think...
This is the Erasmus Bridge - aka the Swan. The architecture here is really interesting.
This is the KPN Telecom building.

This building basically looks like it's falling over and that pole is holding it up. I'd be curious to see what it's like on the inside.This is the other major bridge in Rotterdam - the Williamsburg Bridge.

Next stop after Rotterdam was Delft. Now this little town would not have even been on my list of places to see. I read about it in the guide book and thought - eh. The tour stopped at a pottery shop where they made the famous Delftware. This is handmade pottery. We spent about an hour here listening to how they make the pottery and how they paint the designs. It was interesting but I was ready to leave after about 10 minutes. Pottery isn't really my thing.
The pottery shop where they had paint the Delftware.

Then for lunch, we stopped in the town square of Delft. Whoa! This place was worth hanging out for an hour. There was lots of stuff to see here. We stopped in a restaurant for lunch (which was pretty good, by the way) but it took forever. In retrospect, we should have got a sandwich at Subway (yes - there was a subway in the town square of Delft) and then we could have spent our time roaming around. We walked around for about 20 minutes before we had to get back on the bus.
City Hall. Over the door is the coat of arms of William the Silent.
The spire of Niewe Kerk. The royal family of the House of Orange are buried here.Canal behind the town square - Delft.
The back side of Oude Kerk - Delft.

Oude Kerk dates back to 1246 and sits on one side of the town square. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go in.
Oostpoort - The Eastern Gate.

Onward! Next stop was The Hague. The Hague is the where the government resides. The capital is Amsterdam but all the government buildings and business take place in the Hague.

The palace where Queen Beatrix works.
Statue of Queen Wilhemina (Queen Beatrix's grandmother).
The Peace Palace where the International Court of Justice is held.

The Hague was another place where I'd like to have spent more time. In reading the guide book, there are a lot of historic buildings and museums to see.Scheveningen.

Scheveningen is a seaside resort right outside the Hague. The sea in question is the North Sea. I would love to have dipped my toes in the water but we barely had time to take photos before the driver was off to the next stop.
Scheveningen.Lighthouse at Scheveningen.

Next stop: Madurodam. Madurodam isn't really a city. It's a tourist attraction where many of the important buildings/sites in the Netherlands are represented in miniature. The buildings in the park are 1/25th the size of the real thing. It's kind of cool because you can take "ariel" photos and they look like the real thing.
Madurodam.
John next to one of the buildings just to get a perspective.
Me being a dork in a wooden shoe.Scenery - countryside in the Netherlands on the way back to Amsterdam.

The ride back to Amsterdam was very scenic. There's a lot of farm land.
One more windmill because I'm fascinated by them.

The trip wasn't a total bust. It's nice to have someone drive you around and show you things. We'd never had known about Delft if we hadn't gone there on the tour. One day I hope to make it back to The Netherlands and go spend more time in these cities.

So back in Amsterdam, we wandered around looking for food and we, once again, found ourselves in the Red Light District. It's like a train wreck. You know you shouldn't stare but you can't help yourself. The canals there are really pretty at night because of all the lights. Then, of course, is the oddity of the girls in the windows that are highlighted by red neon lights. They get really grouchy if you try to take pictures.
One of the clubs in the Red Light District - Amsterdam

Back in Amsterdam, we went walking around and found ourselves in the Red Light District. This part of town is pretty outrageous. There are girls in windows that are for sale. The girls tap on the glass to get the attention of potential customers. No pictures of the girls, though. The canals were the prettiest here at night. Canal in the Red Light District at night.

After that busy day, we made it back to the room and slept like rocks...