Month: April 2026

Netherlands 22.4.26

23 April 2026 / admin / 0 Comments

Noordeinde Palace Den Haag 22.4.26

We stay local today with a guided walk around Den Haag. Close by the hotel is a statue memorial to the late Queen Wilhelmina and to be perfectly honest if I had any hand in commissioning or approving this monstrosity I would feel that I was disrespecting the history of her reign and the individual. Why can we not be nice about Royal family members? I have not included a photograph of the monstrosity, even more amazing it is almost opposite the main royal palace (above) where the King works.

Lange Voorhout Den Haag 22.4.26

Our tour takes us along the above attractive tree lined avenue to the Hotel D’Indes and then along past the Houses of Parliament (currently closed for reconstruction) and into the City Centre itself. Mainly traffic free and yet still busy.

Netherland Parliament Den Haag 22.4.26

At the end of the tour we can enter the Palace Gardens (and indeed others walk around them – I am at the limit of my walking time). Given we can no longer even enter Downing Street in London the contrast is enormous and I feel reflects badly on our country where there are so many restrictions on where we may go.

Anatomical Theatre Den Haag 22.4.26

We pass amongst other places the Anatomical Theatre where for several centuries surgeons learnt about the body with full dissections taking place several times per annum. The building was constructed for the Surgeons Guild to allow knowledge to passed on and for skills to be developed.

Plane Filling II M C Escher Den Haag 22.4.26

Following the end of the tour we retrace our steps to enable Jackie to acquire a new cabin suitcase to enable easy travelling as it has wheels and it less cumbersome than the bag packed for this trip. Once Jackie is back at the hotel and after a break, I emerge again to visit Lange Voorhout Palace which now houses a museum dedicated to Maurits Cornelis Escher, an artist whose mind perhaps worked in a slightly unusual way. Much of his output was dedicated to transformations where birds turn to fish and similar, he is also known for the impossible where a 2D representation of 3 D items enables things to be achieved which are physically impossible. Although from the Netherlands he did spend a long time in Italy.

In the evening we dine at BlueBloods which is a short walk each way and we are able to get a very decent steak.

Netherlands 21.4.26

22 April 2026 / admin

Colours Keukenhof 21.4.26

Another day and an important one – the coach reappears – a good five minutes walk away as it cannot reach the hotel – and we climb aboard for a trip of about an hour to Keukenhof which are gardens laid out to show off the wares of Dutch Bulb growers enabling people to walk amongst a mass of flowers – at their best – for a period of about six weeks – which is the only time the gardens are open.

There are also specialist displays inside some of the buildings but we only tried one of these – with a display of orchids – but at some point in the past we have (for once) been somewhere better – we just cannot remember where!

Flowers galore Keukenhof 21.4.26

We cover much of the site – but to do all of it requires more walking than either of us can manage – a trip we should have done earlier. Pain killers for my pain can sometimes work and sometimes not. It is not clear sometimes why something has worked or why even having taken something the pain appears.

Tulips Keukenhof 21.4.26

Although the site is pretty busy it remains possible to get photographs without too many people in shot – but there are different colours and flowers everywhere, along with statues and other aspects to achieve variety.

Bluebells among the tulips Keukenhof 21.4.26

Equally impressive are the ordinary growing fields we pass on our journeys – both yesterday and today we pass fields of flowers in strips each of a single colour. Some strips have been picked and others are just reaching that point – all amazing bright colours. I have over 70 photographs so those included are just a small extract to indicate the variety which exists.

We dine in the hotel this evening. Not particularly worth recounting according to my memory.

Netherlands 20.4.26

21 April 2026 / admin

Amsterdam 20.4.26

Today was one of those days – with the problems starting on Sunday evening when we discovered messages advising that our KLM flight this morning was not flying. By the time we saw the messages we had also been advised that we would be flying BA a little later than planned. However KLM use T4 and BA uses T5; the parking booking needed changing and we are now heading for pod parking arriving so early inside T5 that security has not yet been unsecured (4:30am for future reference).

BA get us away more or less on time to deliver us into the next hell hole – Amsterdam Schipol. We head towards immigration and after several attempts I manage to register my passport and fingerprints on the new terminals needed to enter Schengen territory. It was so much easier arriving at Hoek of Holland by ferry in 1976. We are then split without any explanation into “Route 1” and “Route 2”. Both routes are placed into holding zones – apparently because one of the two downward escalators is not working so the people flow has to he regulated. After a while the powers that be decided we could not go that way and led across the terminal to another set of stairs which did not really indicate where route 1 or route 2 people should go. Eventually route 1 goes to machines which appear to scan passport (success), take a picture (success) and fingerprints – three attempts and then rejected and put into route 2 in which you get to meet a border guard.

Fill up the queues further along we are advised at high volume. Then all the difficult cases (4) are brought to the officer in the booth for which I am queueing – which for Jackie who managed to get through route 1 means increasing worry as I have disappeared into nothingness. Eventually I reach the officer and I am asked where I am going – well Amsterdam – I am here. I am advised that is not an appropriate answer as I am in transfers and MUST be going somewhere else. Eventually after some explanation that I have been sent this way it is accepted that I can go to Amsterdam! I emerge and find Jackie. However there are only signs for transfers to somewhere else and no indication that there is an exit anywhere. If anyone ever asks – do not fly to Amsterdam.

The tour guide is slowly collecting his flock and one of the last couple through obviously have the same sort of misrouting as I suffered.

Royal Palace Amsterdam 20.4.26

We are then dropped in central Amsterdam and although we have been here before, over 20 years ago I honestly do not recognise it at all. The station looks familiar as we used it a few years ago but the rest is not recognised. We walk a little way to the main square and then find a decent lunch in an adjacent restaurant before returning to the quay and taking a cruise through the canals of Amsterdam – again we have done it before but I do not really remember it. Back to the coach pick up. Only it doesn’t. It is reported that the coach is stuck in a tunnel under the City and cannot move. We sit in a local bar but after two hours I flip out and we decide to catch a train down to The Hague where we have a dinner reservation.

Amsterdam Canal Cruiser 20.4.26

The train takes around 50 minutes – smooth, a number of stops, double decker trains. Not high speed but frequent (every 10 or 15 minutes). Once in The Hague we take a taxi direct to our booked restaurant for an excellent meal before finding our Movenpick hotel – we are now very tired as it has been a very long day.

Service to Den Haag 20.4.26

The rest of the tour party made it to the hotel soon after 7 as the coach had finally been extricated around the time we set off; I just felt that not enough was being done – it seemed that a second coach could not be procured and it was all down to a lack of CCTV in the tunnel – but there are other ways of solving the problem and getting traffic moving.

None of the problems were the fault of Newmarket directly – KLM had a flight cancellation; Schipol clearly cannot cope with the new system, the failure by the local police to keep traffic moving