Keukenhof

On the Saturday we went off to the Keukenhof gardens. It is essentially the place where the great bulb growers of the Netherlands showcase their bulbs. And sell some of course. There is also an orchid house though we didn’t bother to visit that. On the way we passed brilliantly striped fields of colour, as the young tulips bloomed.

 

Brilliantly striped fields of flowers

I’m not sure there is much point in my writing much about the gardens. Pictures will say so much more. It was very busy - not surprising as it was a Saturday & the bulb season is so short. My conclusions about bulbs I’ll put after the pictures.

Carpet of grape hyacinths

  

Having seen the spectacular gardens at Keukenhof, we questioned whether we fancied any more bulbs for our garden.  We’ve certainly decided on some more daffs/narcissi. We’ve decided we really fancy some golden yellow ones with orange trumpets. Fritillaries we’re not keen on. Tulips do look wonderful in great sweeps, but the odd ones dotted in gardens as you tend to see in this country, don’t do much for us. Much as I love their pure colours & the shape before the petals open out fully, they do quickly look a mess if bad weather hits them. The winds around here are very conducive to twisted stems & quickly falling petals. If I can find a sheltered spot I may consider a few, possibly more alpine varieties, in pots but that will be all. Hyacinths I find look rather too artificial to me, a bit plasticky, though their perfume is delicious. The bulbs I really re-discovered were the grape hyacinths. That great sweep of blue carpet between the trees was spectacular. We may well get some of those. Needless to say we bought none while we were there – the queues were just too long for us to be prepared to join.

Would we go again? Possibly, though I think we would aim for a midweek trip when it might have been a bit quieter, though I’m sure it would be busy any day. We loved the trees & shrubs as much as the bulbs. We also enjoyed some of the art features & fountains scattered throughout the park.

The fountain just inside the entrance of the gardens

Man at prayer

Smaller fountains

A bronze poppy

Change of plans

I was intending to write about the continuing adventures on our Dutch holiday. That will wait till the next one. Instead I will tell of the interruption to our everyday life.

Yesterday was the Fox’s birthday. We decided to go out to a pub we came across last year for a meal. The food had been exceptional last time.

Off we went avoiding the worst of Lancaster rush hour traffic by heading to the M6 & taking the first junction off, south of Lancaster. We turned up the country lane to the pub to discover the hedgerows were white. This is the foothills of the Pennines. We may not have had snow on the sea coast but clearly, just a bit inland & higher up, they had had some.

The door was firmly shut. We feared it was closed for good, so used are we to pubs being open all day these days. I looked at the clock & saw it was not yet 6pm & I remembered they didn’t start serving food until after 6pm. Sure enough, just after 6 the door opened. The Fox went in to check there was a table available. There was. He came speedily back for me with news of a roaring log fire, just the thing for a cold evening like this one.

Soon we were deliberating over a fine menu, finally deciding on a Smoked Mackerel Terrine with puréed beetroot & horseradish, followed by salmon with crushed potatoes & seaweed butter. While we waited for the food to arrive we were brought some bread. It was beautiful. Homemade by the taste of it. I thought it had some rather hard seed on top of the crusty crust. On removing the “seed” I discovered it was in fact part of my tooth. Fortunately I wasn’t in instant pain. The meal was excellent, finished off with an Orange Sponge & ice cream.

Through the night I kept waking up as I lay on that side of my face, the pressure causing pain. Then in the morning I went to clean my teeth – such agony.

Our dentist opens at 8.30am. I was promptly on the phone. It was already engaged. I persevered, re-dialling every few seconds. Finally I got through. They’d already had 4 others with similar problems, so all emergency appointments were gone for today. However, she said she would consult with the dentist as Tuesday would be a long time to wait in pain - Monday is a Bank Holiday. As I was in pain & a regular patient, he agreed to see me if I could come straight down as a couple of patients had arrived yet.

We flew down to the surgery. My tooth has now been re-filled & is feeling fine.

I can’t help feeling very grateful for my dentist. In some areas it can be very difficult to find a NHS dentist these days, let alone one as obliging as this. He’s a Pole. When he first took over the practice it was difficult to understand his English but these days it has improved considerably. He may be a mumbler but he does see you when you need him & continues to work in the NHS. Three cheers for him!

A tale of cheese, a church & art

My eyes were attracted by movement in the garden. I hastily found my glasses. It was a pair of goldfinches. They’d clearly found something of interest in the cracks between the stones of the raised garden bed. I rushed to get the camera. Needless to say the moment I raised the camera to my eye they flew off. Still it was wonderful to see them. It’s put me in a good mood for the day.

Anyhow back to our Dutch adventures.  Our next visit was to Alkmaar, famed for its open air cheese market. It was our only wet day, showery rather than something that really soaked you. When we arrived the crowd around market square was several people deep, making it impossible for us sat in our chairs to see.  Our tour leader, Bev, fearlessly strode through & insisted that there should be a place for her party of wheelchair users to watch the proceedings, so we were let into the actual ring.

 

Alkmaar cheese market, the judging & haggling

Alkmaar cheese market, loading the sleds

At the market, the great cheeses, each 70-80kg in weight are laid out. They are judged for quality before being auctioned off to the retail market. Some cheese samples were brought round but I’m forced to admit my interest in Gouda & Edam cheeses is limited, even those flavoured with caraway seeds or nettle leaves for example. Once sold the cheeses are carried off, 8 at a time on sleds to the Waag (weigh-house). They then re-emerge to be taken off to the buyers’ vans. 

 

 It’s fascinating, & quite funny watching the porters in their white uniform with straw hats beribboned with the colours of whichever company they work for, running along with the cheese. They have an odd gait with hands paddling along in a distinctive fashion – it’s all supposed to make it easier to carry the great weight, personally I couldn’t help wondering if it wasn’t done for effect & our amusement.

The red company with their distinctve run, taking the cheese to the waiting vans. 

The blue company with their distinctive run, taking the cheese into the Waag

After we’d stayed a while, we decided to wander off by ourselves. We explored a bit around the canal before heading towards the church. Although the Grote Kerk or St-Laurenskerk is impressive, especially the immaculate disabled loo inside, we were not greatly excited. It’s like so many Dutch churches, rather hollow inside. We stopped to look at the organ pipes, the triptych of the Relief of Alkmaar, an event in the 17^th century Dutch War of Independence from the Spain, the 1667 ship models & the vault paintings of the Last Judgement, a copy of which was brought lower down so you could more easily see what was portrayed. However, to me, the church lacked a sense of sanctity, of the presence of God.

We wondered what to do next as we still had over an hour to wait before the coach was due to collect us. We decided in the end to try the nearby Stedelijk Museum, the municipal museum. This turned out to be the highlight of our visit to Alkmaar.

We first went around the temporary exhibition of works by Geerit van Blaaderen (1873-1935). It was fascinating to see how his artistic style changed from the sombre fairly conventional style of the late 19^th century into something glowing with light & colour after he took influence from the likes of Cezanne & Monet. He’s an artist I’d never heard of before but one I shall keep my eyes open for in the future.

We then progressed to the gallery on the Golden Age of Alkmaar, the great days of prosperity and of the Dutch East India Company. Finally we went through the section about the siege & relief of Alkmaar. The filmed actors telling the story in Dutch were fortunately subtitled in English so we were able to follow the tale. It seemed to be a tale of the Dutch being able to use their knowledge of how to control the waters with dams, canals etc. & the Spanish, unhappy away from the sun & heat of Spain & stuck in mud & rain.

We ended up rushing through this bit of the gallery as time was running out. We never got to see the Picasso gallery in our rush to get back to the coach.