Windmills, Flowers, and Art – Go to Holland
Holland, the former maritime superpower, is renowned for its windmills, flowers, and art, offering many places to try and experience!
Illustration: Tulip fields worldwide. Source: Web
A fusion of classical and modern cities
From a 12th-century fishing village to a modern metropolis, the legendary Amsterdam is not a misnomer. Walking through the winding canals, cobblestone streets, and numerous world-class museums… Whether you are visiting for the first time or revisiting your old haunts, you will be deeply attracted by it.
Explore Rotterdam, with its avant-garde architecture dazzling the eyes. The iconic yellow cube houses are still magical, and the Markthal food market is constantly presenting vibrant light and color combinations.
Go to Delft, a small town in Holland that is easy to miss. It is a fresh, quiet and beautiful place, exuding a strong classical atmosphere and is renowned for its blue pottery. It is still one of the favorite towns of the Dutch Royal Family.
Explore Leiden, with Leiden University, the oldest university in Holland. A canal flows through the city, with 88 bridges and a giant windmill standing beside the river, with narrow waterways and well-preserved 17th-century buildings.
If you want to taste the most authentic Dutch cheese, go to Alkmaar. Here, people gather on a square in front of the scales, and men wear traditional clothes, from transporting, weighing and tasting cheese.
Cruise through the refreshing countryside
Zaanse Schans Windmill Village, dating back 700 years, is already famous. There are no cars or roads, only a dense network of rivers and 176 small wooden bridges connecting the houses, this green village is so beautiful that it makes you intoxicated.
If you want to see the representative windmill landscape, Kinderdijk is undoubtedly a good choice. The windmill group has been listed as a world heritage site, and is a typical model of Dutch scenery and cultural witnesses.
Zaanse Schans Windmill Village, located north of Amsterdam, preserves more of the Dutch living and lifestyle traditions. Windmills, wooden shoes and cheese are concentrated here. Various handicraft workshops are scattered throughout the windmill village, forming a tranquil countryside landscape.
Lose yourself in beautiful flower fields
The opening of tulips awakened spring in Europe, and it attracted the discerning eyes of European royalty with its unique appearance, so it is worth a high price.
Keukenhof Park is Holland's second largest flower viewing spot, open only once a year, approximately from late March to May, lasting for one or two months, depending on the weather. There are more than 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths planted in the park, covering 32 hectares of land, colorful and fragrant like a hand-made carpet.
During the annual flower viewing period, the town of Noordwijk will hold a grand flower car parade. The flower cars slowly pass through the Dutch countryside and cities, reaching a climax when passing through Keukenhof, and people are fascinated and intoxicated by this moving flower castle.
Browse world-class museums
The Dutch National Museum opened in 1885 and is the largest museum in Holland, located in the busiest museum district of Amsterdam. The masterpieces of Dutch painters during the 17th-century Golden Age are the main characters here.
The Van Gogh Museum collects the most precious 200 paintings of Van Gogh's Golden Period, accounting for one-quarter of his total works. ‘Fifteen Sunflowers’, ‘Self-Portrait’, ‘Flight of Geese’, ‘The Potato Eaters’… Each vivid scene, combined with Van Gogh’s bumpy life experience, lets you hear the voice of that era, and completely enter the artist's world.
The Rembrandt House Museum is where Rembrandt lived from 1639 to 1656. The museum restores the interior layout of the time, mainly the studio and painting materials. The copperplate engravings are particularly brilliant.
Xinmen Daily Reporter Tang Min
