3/31/12 Holland...Netherlands...Nederlands...whatever you call it, it is fantastic!

Up and out early today (had to be at Ramstein by 2:30 am for the Tulip Tour). OK, never got to take my nap as planned after work so that I would be more awake for this trip, and surely didn't get much sleep on the bus going...only about 3 hours, but all in all still a wonderful trip. Unfortunately, the pictures from this trip have made me seriously think that maybe, just perhaps I need a new camera (I suppose my abuse and misuse of this poor little camera have finally taken their toll...believe me if I get a new one in the near future I will try to take better care of it than I have with this one...I guess just throwing it in your purse is not a good thing..oops).

This tour was different than those that I have taken in the past. The others had always been through USO, this was through RTT. So thinking through USO experience, I was at the meeting point way early so that I could get on the bus and get my seat and be ready to go...the buses are always early, right? Wrong! The buses got there at 2:35 am and then there were two and do you think we could ride on whichever we liked? Nope...and of course I found this out after waiting in line on one bus to be told I was on the other bus...eek! Oh well, I got on the other bus and all was good. It was kind of nice to be on this tour as one of the teachers from a close by school was also taking this tour and she is an amazing person, so a good one to tour with.

So we get our seats and then wait, and wait, and wait (mainly while people carried their ridiculous amounts of little kid stuff on the bus...this a tour that recommended that little kids not go on...and yet one of those people piling the "kid" stuff on was one of the tour guides...go figure). And off we go, at 2:50 am...I was not awake for much after our departure as I was sleeping off and on (not easily done on the bus).

Have you ever had one of those days when some really well planned things dont work well? This was one of them because once we got into the Netherlands we got detoured from our route...that meant more time on the bus enroute. Finally, we near Amsterdam (actually Amstelveen) and come to our first stop...the Clara Maria cheese farm and clog factory. (www.claramaria.nl) It was a beautiful little farm that happens to make cheese (gloriously delicious cheese...gouda cheese) and also happens to be a clog factory...I know what a mixture.

First things first, we go in for our traditional Dutch breakfast. We get directed through the clog factory area (really only one room), by the cheese making room, through the gift shop, and into what looks like an offshoot of a floored barn that has been decorated with tables etc.At the table is juice, coffee, tea, breads, cheeses (farm fresh), ham, fruits, jellies, butter (farm fresh), and eggs in the cute little delft egg cups. It seems that with our breakfast we will be given not only a cheese tasting but also a lesson on how to use a slicer (which I already knew since I have had one for years). In the back of the dining hall they had storage for many of the cheese...on my, cheese heaven!

some of the clara maria cows

the dining hall

We had a guest with us for breakfast as it seems the farm has the traditional pet..a cat...but this one was named Penguin.

The Clara Maria has been around for a long time, but about 150 years ago the van Wees family purchased it and it has been handed down through the family since. The wooden shoe factory, cheese making room, and gift shop are all housed in the original barn on the farm.

After breakfast we were given a little tour of how things are done. The first part was with Christina talking about making the cheese. She told us about how they make cheese and how they come up with some of their flavors (delicious by the way...I am snacking on some Farmers Flame while typing). She is hilarious and warm and so friendly. She told us about a little story of her marriage. She is an American and when she was marrying her husband he happened to tell her that it was perfect that he was marrying an American, because of his cows. YOu see he had decided that he needed to cross his dutch cows with American holsteins, so marrying an American was like crossbreeding the cows.  When they had their first daughter he once again proclaimed to her, "see our children are just like the cows."

I guess to make up for this slight faux pas in his analogies, one day he decided to make a special kind of cheese for his wife. She loves mexican food and traditional mexican (or tex-mex) is not readily available in Holland, so he she walked in the cheese room one day and he was busy chopping up chilis (and crying from the fumes), as were all the rest working on the cheese...Christina thought that something must have happened with everyone crying...but hubby told her, no, he just loved her so much he wanted to make a special cheese for her (which of course made her cry with joy). Meanwhile one of the ladies working in the cheese room picked up a bag of peppers and dumped the whole thing into the cheese mixture...not the plan. But from that mistake came the special cheese for Christina. Her husband (sorry cant remember his name...he said it with an accent...go figure) told her he had a perfect name for the cheese, which by the way turned out incredibly...he said it should be named Farmers Flame. He was forgiven for his comparing their marriage and children to the cows....it is by the way delicious cheese.

Christina telling her tales of cheesemaking and how she came to the farm.

cheese making tub

putting cheese out to dry after molding

Getting out the cheese to mold it

 Along with the lesson in cheese making we also learned that when they put the labels on cheese the label shape tells a lot. IF the label has four corners then it was made by hand, as is done at the Clara Maria. IF the label is round then it was factory created. We also learned how to tell if a cheese is older or not...you squeeze it like charmin...if it has a lot of give it is a newer cheese..if it has no give to it, it is an older cheese, thus being more sharp...like a parmessan. You slice the newer kind and grate the older kind.

Then it was on to the clog or wooden shoe making lesson. I thought it was wonderful that they had one of the older kids in the group help with this. This kid had to split the wood that would be used for the demonstration (its ok, it was only a little piece and he had help). Then Lukas (I think that was the hubby's name) went on to describe how they make the wooden shoes, why they are useful (they are still worn on the farm and in many working places), about the wedding shoes, and more.

I found it interesting to hear about the wedding shoes. Traditionally, when getting engaged the man will carve special shoes for the woman. These shoes will include the family design and their names. The woman is supposed to wear these shoes for the year before the wedding. They are then worn on special occasions. These shoes can also be purchased but with less intricacy or they would be extremely expensive. This is a sample of the less intricate design.

Sadly, our time was cut short at Clara Maria (thanks detour), so needless to say there was not much time for shopping...which really annoyed me because I didn't have time to get lots of cheese...and some that I had bought and planned to send back to the states ended up with the wrong ones being vacuum packed...which means they cant be sent back...of course that means I have to eat them, but that was not the plan. Really wish we hadn't been rushed, but I guess I will just have to go back again, now that I know where they are. So many kinds of cheese, so little time.

Off to the main attraction...and as we get on the bus, it starts to sprinkle. Yes, the sky has been overcast, but their was that lingering hope that all of a sudden the clouds would open up to a bright sunshiny day...nope not happening. Oh well, things could be worse.Just shame so overcast because htat makes it difficult to get nice clear pictures...but I go back to Keukenhof in a month so maybe second times the charm.

After a short drive we start seeing all the flower fields, which unfortunately are not in full bloom yet :(

Keukenhof literally means 'kitchen garden' and was named that because it was the herb garden outside the castle kitchen. In the 15th century Countess Jacqueline of Bavaria was the owner of the estate (Teylingen) The area was the hunting grounds for the countess and her family/friends. The herb garden along with a vast hunting area around that castle now make up the Keukenhof Gardens (about 80 acres).


Although the garden is only open for a few weeks out of the year (end of March - May) it does have three different flower seasons. To do this they plant on three different layers within the same spot. so the flowers for the last show are planted deepest, then the middle show flowers are plants a bit above those, and then the flowers for the first show are planted closest to the surface. How clever is that?


It takes the gardeners about two months to plant about 7 million bulbs.A few factoids about the garden: the beech trees on Beech tree lane are over 160 years old. there are more than 2500 trees at the Keukenhof in 87 different varieties.There are 280 benches, 15 fountains, and 32 bridges in the park. The swans at the park are actually leased yearly for the opening time. The windmill was built in 1892 and has been in Keukenhof since 1957.

I thought this was cute...wooden shoes filled with planted bulbs.

They use anything and everything to put flowers in...these are different colored bottles being used as vases for the flowers to be hung in the tree.

this is a chess set under a pavilion...its big and so cool.

I loved this idea...a divider wall with planters on it.

These are interesting...you have wooden books then if you look at the 4th pair over they look like mens dress shoes.

This dress is made of wooden discs.

this dress is made of strips of bark.

this dress is made of egg shells

Look, I am mother nature

As you can see despite the overcast day, and the flowers not all being in bloom, it was still a good day at the Keukenhof...it will interesting to see the difference when I go back at the end of April.