Travel » Holland Tourism

HOLLAND
As the train sped across Germany to Holland, the gradual change in the landscape became evident. No more mountains or vineyards, but lowlands Criss-crossed by canals and rivers. The Netherlands, would be submerged at high tide were it not for its dykes and dunes.

The Peace Palace is the highlight of a visit to the Hague. In 1903, the American millionaire Andrew Carnegie donated a huge sum for the construction of a palace to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration. It was named Peace Palace to emphasize its purpose of maintaining world peace. Almost every major country has contributed towards this edifice designed by the French architect Cordonnier, and amended by Dutchman Van Der Steur. It houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, the Carnegie Foundation Library and the Hague Academy of International Law.

The palace is a thing of rare beauty. Its marble and tapestries are priceless. The unusual Statue of Justice on the first floor is not blindfolded, but she looks people straight in the eye as she metes out justice. Upstairs in the Japanese room each country is represented by a chair with its own embossed insignia. Several member countries don’t own a chair because the price is as high as US$50,000 (Rs23 lakh).

Our last stop for the day was at Madurodam, a miniature of Holland on a scale of 1:25. This miniature city has a royal mayoress— Queen Beatrix. Named after the war hero George Maduro who died in Dachau in 1945, it takes two hours to wander AROUND Madurodam, and is best seen under illumination. In one corner is the sand sculpture exhibition in an underground cavern, which depicts the history of man from the Neanderthal to the modern age.

The next day was spent driving through a countryside where canals mid waterways Criss-crossed under quaint wooden bridges; where stately manors surrounded by moats and gabled cedar wood cottages merged with the scenery. Our first stop was ‘S-Hertogen Bosch. It was market day in town and the stalls were a pageant of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and even a magenta colored anthurium. It was a fairy tale town narrow winding streets, food stalls, amusement arks. An organ grinder churned out old favorites. Even his collection box was an antique, a brass shoe shaped like Alladin’s lamp.

The Church of St John beck oned This 812-year-old cathedral, part Gothic in style, houses a statue of Mary which is said to have been visited by the Queen, and the Pope, and has some association with the Knights of the Golden Fleece. you see icons and candles in every niche, and devotees genuflecting everywhere. After such a solemn experience, we needed some earthly sustenance, and gorged on bossche bollen, a cream-filled bun coated with chocolate, a speciality of this town.

Dykes and Polders
A round trip through Alblasser Waard was an education in itself. This is where the polders are, tiny patches of land surrounded dukes and canals with artificially controlled water levels—& veritable maze of waterways. Here footbridges connect the residential houses to the cads, and the mode of transport between farms is by boat. We stopped Gaudrian, beside one such canal, with a windmill in the background.

Simultaneously with the boat races, cyclists were racing along the river. The Rhine is called Lek in these parts. We motored through villages called Groot Ames, Streefkerk, Nieuport, until we arrived at Kinderdjik, where we counted 19 windmills in a row, called the Molengang. The wingspan of the sails is about 28 m. As the polders are well below the level of the rivers, excess water in the canals surrounding them must be drained off periodically to prevent inundation. This group of windmills drains water into a common reservoir, which is connected by sluices to the river—an incredible engineering feat, without which Holland would have been under the North Sea. An old Dutch saying goes, "God created all the world, but the Dutch created Holland."

The Airborne Museum at Oosterbeek was my last port of call. It is housed in the palace of Hartenstein, and was the center of British activity during the Battle of Arnhem. The museum is a tribute to British and Polish troops in the battle that was lost by the Allies. On September 6 every year, an annual peace walk starts here.