Tulips are one of the many symbols of the Netherlands. The best time to go see fields of tulips is the Spring, from March to mid May. Flowers have an important place in the Netherlands. A big parade is held at the end of April throughout the country: Bollenstreek Flower Parade (See picture below).

Other events such as the Bloemencorso Valkenswaard parade and the Kerstflora (Christmas Flora) are held throughout the year.

Keukenhof is the world's largest flower garden. Indeed the garden is 32 hectares large ! Keukenhof is near Harleem and attract every year thousands of tourist from all around the world and is one of the most photographed sights in the world.

 

Rotterdam is the second main city of the Netherlands. Rotterdam is a new city because of the second war world which destroyed it. That's why Rotterdam looks like a big American city with lots of big buildings and many architecture styles. We can find buildings which are a 150m tall and houses which are really strange. The Netherlands, especially with Rotterdam, is the European country which looks like the USA the most. In fact, there are very rich areas; in Rotterdam, this area is called "the New Orleans" and hosts lustful hotels. On the other side, there are poor neighborhoods which look like ghettos. The landscape is very American.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Rotterdam black with cubic houses                                                      Some buildings from the train station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                          Like United-States

 

 

 

 

 

 

The higher tower of Rotterdam in New Orlean

 

Rotterdam owns a new Metro. Inside, we can see beautiful architecture and lots of bright colors. We can compare the metro station to an airport hall. Everythingl is very organized and safe; many camera are in the metro and in the station. The metro is also very clean compared to Paris. Rotterdam owns also bus, tram and a train station and also an airport. But Rotterdam is most pf all very famous because of its port which is the biggest of Europe. When we were going to see the port,  we spent 20 minutes to by-pass the port in train: It is very big.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               The metro                                                                                               Port of Rotterdam

                                                              A boat which left the port

 

Rotterdam is famous for others things. The emblem of the city is the famous bridge: Willembrug. This bridge is located near the city center. The metro, cars and pedestrians cross the river by this bridge. In the middle of the bridge we have a beautiful landscape of the city center of Rotterdam with towers and buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              The Willembrug                                                                                     The landscape

 

Rotterdam owns a big zoological park. When we visited it, we spent 4 hours walking in the park. Moreover, there are all kinds of animals of all the continents. This park is very instructive because lots of information and explanations are given about animals, their laboratory and the plants. I can add that compared to other zoos, we saw all the animals in this zoo; they didn't go to the ground.  Rotterdam is a city for shopping. Outside the city center where we can find lots of stores, there is a big shopping center: the Alexanderium. It is an enormous gallery composed of six builings linked between them by footbridge. Except stores, there is also a cinema, restaurants etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Blijdorp Zoo                                                                                             Alexandrium

 

In Rotterdam, we can find also the biggest mosque in Europe. It is located between the New Orleans square and the Feyenoord Stadion, where the main soccer team of Rotterdam train and perform. This stadium is very large and can be compare to the "stade de france".  I had the possibility to see a match with my uncle in this stadium; it was against Breda and to celebrate the 75th birthday of the stadium. So there was a ceremony with the flag of the club, songs and pyrotechnics. The stadium was full for this event !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             Stadion Feyenoord                                                                                        Inside

The mosque

A little movie of the ceremony:

The famous red square is called also red light district. It is the most famous red district in the world and which attracts the most of tourists. In addition to the showcase, lots of people go to the red light district in order to smoke some weed in the coffee shpos or drink beer and other alcohol during soccer match diffusion in the pubs.

In this place, we can see prostitutes, who wait for their customers behind showcases in the night. It is forbidden for them to be naked behind showcases, so they show the minimum. We can find lots of sex shops and pubs also. Tourists of all ages, who come from everywhere in the world, visit the red light district. Each night, lots of bus of foreign people and students stop here to visit the place.

However it is firmly forbidden to take photos of prostitutes behind the showcases.

Except for drugs and sex, in that area of Amsterdam it is possible to find the oldest church of city. We can see also a beautiful and delightful places to walk with the little bridges and canals.

          The red light district                                                        A way with prostituates

                                                                   Red bull coffee shop

Amsterdam is a famous city for its Museums. It is a traditionaler city and the capital of the Netherlands. It is the city in Europe where there is the most museums. When I spend my week end in Amsterdam, I could see some museums and walk in front of some others. 

Madame Tussauds: It is an international museum. We can see another Mme Tussauds museum in London for example.  We can see famous people inside. Theses famous people are statues which are built of wax. These statues look like all kind of stars ; from David Beckam to Barack Obama. This museum is amazing because we can compare ourself to famous people (tall, shoulder etc). Moreover, some dutch famous people are exposed in the museum and some texts are written about them; it allows us to know who they are. At different steps of the visit, we can try some clothes or shoot a movie. The ingang (entrance) of this museum costs 21€, it is expensive compared to other museums. On the top of the museum, we can see all the DAM place and people who walk ; beautifull view. This museum is located in the most famous place in Amsterdam: The DAM place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      The museum from the DAM place                                                                         Madame Tussauds

I try the Mickael Jackson clothes

Next, a litte fun movie: 

 

 

After visited this museum, we walk in the city center and arrived in front of other famous museums. We enter in the sex museum. It doesn't cost expensive. Inside, we saw lots of pictures statues and figurines. Some pictures choc us but the goal of this museum is explaining the sex evolution from the middle ages to today. It shows us all kind of practizes also (someone are very hard). We are disappointed by this museum.

Others museum interest us but we have not money enough.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                    Sex museum                                                                                      Amsterdam museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

               Erotic museum              

 

 

                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                     AJAX musem

                         

 

               Van Gogh museum                         

Heineken museum

Last week-end, the sun was shining so Katell and Margaux decided to go to the capital of the Netherlands.

Amsterdam was built as a village of fishermen on the 13th century. The name of the city comes from a dam which had been built on the Amstel river. The location of this dam gave birth to the main square of Amsterdam called nowadays "the dam".
Amsterdam is a part of the province of Noord-Holland. The river Amstel comes to throw itself into the IJ river forming a large number of canals in the center of the city. The capital is located 2 meters under the level of the sea and is connected to the North Sea by a long canal.

 

The visit started with a part of history, we walked to the museum of Anne Frank's house. The museum is located where the hiding place of the Frank family during two years (from July, 6th, 1942 to their arrest in 1944) was. The furnitures of the rooms are not anymore in the house as Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank and the only survivor from the hiding place of the Holocaust, asked so we found that the museum was a little bit empty. However the visit was a moving moment and we had to do it, it is the duty of memory. Here you can find more informations about the life of Anne Frank in the hiding place :  http://www.annefrank.org/en/Anne-Franks-History/ .

 

The weather was so cold in Amsterdam, around -15°C , that allowed us to take a walk on the canals. This did not happen in the city for fifteen years! The Amsteldallois (the name of the habitants of Amsterdam) took advantage of the weather to ice-skate. Such a funny experience!

 

The visit of the city continued from the famous main square of Amsterdam and the royal palace of the Dam to the train station where Katell was looking for the big "I AMSTERDAM".

Amsterdam is really cosy and looks like more a village than a metropolis, the uncountable canals and the long houses make the character of the "Venice of the north" with a little Russian touch. Then, we lost oursleves in the red light district, shame on us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The temperature do not allow us to ride bicycle around the city so we choose the tramway. It the second easier way to travel around the city, it is impossible and useless to drive by car in Amsterdam. We bought a "strippenkaart", a day-ticket which costs seven euros and allows to take the tram, the bus and the subway if you are too lazy to take a walk or if the weather is too cold.

We finally found the famous "I AMSTERDAM" and took a lot of pictures. We were such tourists there.

 

  Written by Margaux