Michael Jago's Blog

We had a very busy today today, starting by visiting Delft, which is described as the prettiest town in the Netherlands, and where they make the famous Delft blue and white and stupidly expensive pottery. (No, I’d never heard of it, but Julie certainly had) :-). Delft really is a pretty place, (not unlike Brugge) with lots of canals and a beautiful town square, but certainly more Dutch than Belgian.

We then drove about 20 mins to the sea side town of Scheveningen, just north of Den Haag (The Hague). Julie and Gabi visited here in 2009 (whilst I was away working), but I was able to see it for the first time today. Amazing beaches and a great vibe, as it is built up right to the beach with a great promenade and cafes all the way along the beachfront. Below is a few photos from today.

The first pic is Julie, Mia and I beside one of the canals in Delft. The middle pic is the beach with the cafes and couches down on the sand and the pic on the right is the Steigenberger Hotel on the beach in Scheveningen.

After over two months of sunshine and no rain, we discovered the tulip season peaked early this year and is officially over (in our expert opinion). We made it to Keukenhof today but it was a shadow of its former self. It was probably spectacular three weeks ago but today there was a disappointing lack of tulips. However the weather held up and the place was still stunning and I have included a flickr link to today’s photos and a few pics here so you can share what we saw.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkjago/sets/72157626595007397/

Our day started with some comedy.  Inside the entrance, while we were looking at the map, we noticed that Mia was having her photo taken by a Japanese tourist.  The next thing we know, Mia is having her photo taken by dozen Japanese tourists with one squatting down next to her pusher to have his photo with her.  And do you think she would smile for all these cameras?  Not a chance.  We tried our best but Mia just wouldn’t perform.  It didn’t seem to matter, they just thought she was cute.

The Keukenhof Gardens are beautifully laid out with enormous trees and mass plantings of tulips. Unfortunately the tulip heads had all been pulled off by rampaging gardeners and what was left were just beds of green leaves.  To keep the tourists happy, they had trucked in pallet loads of late-blooming tulips and daffodils and dumped them in the middle of paths.  The flowers were perfect as long as you didn’t mind the wooden crate at their base.  They were fine for photos, as you can see.

I’ve also taken lots of videos but that will take me a while to edit and post.  I’ll add it here eventually.