Some Old Rocks, Where Are You Taking Us?, and Other Stories

When my parents were here, we visited the Hunebedden, megalithic structures built 5,000 years ago by the very ancient Dutch.  These dot the countryside, so to visit them, we had to head far from the big cities.

On the way from the bus stop, we pass an interesting tree.

Multi-layer!

Many of the roofs in this town were made from thatch, similar to what was even used thousands of years ago!

While some like to mix modern with age-tested.

Finally we reach the first, and largest, Hunebedden   These rocks are all that is left.  5,000 years ago, the inhabitants of the area would search out large rocks.  When they found them, they would move them over a series of logs and compose a man-made cave, sort of like a mini-stonehenge, where the large rocks were placed on supporting rocks.  Cracks were filled with smaller rocks, and then the entire thing was covered in dirt.

Inside the Hunebedden.

This is what the chamber would have looked like thousands of years ago.

They were used as ancient burial chambers.

At the museum, there was a reconstruction of what a house of members of this community would have looked like.

It reminded me a lot of similar dwellings that we saw in Wales.

A really gneiss rock.

Sorry for my geology humor.

When the Hunebedden were made, rocks were transported by rolling them on a series of logs, like this.

After the museum, we head out into the country-side (on foot) to find more Hunebedden!

My dad begins to question whether I know where the heck I am going.

Of course I do!  Muuhahaha!

The local wildlife.

Before too long, we find a few smaller Hunebedden in a cluster amid the trees.

This one has a huge tree growing around it today.

And a point if you can name the name of the people who made these Hunebedden 

Heading on our way back,

and even passing more windmills!

Windmilli?

Where Dutch People Fear to Tread

A cold spring caused us to put it off as long as possible... but finally, we could wait no longer.  On the last day my parents were here, we went to the Dutch national flower show - the utterly massive botanical garden known as the Keukenhof.

It's open for just a couple of months every year, when the flowers - mostly hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips, are in full bloom.  

When talking to my Dutch friends about the Keukenhof, I found that not a single one has ever stepped inside.  Were tulips just too common in their minds?  Perhaps when you grow up surrounded by millions of flowers, they aren't a big deal anymore?

As one of my friends put it - she envisioned the inside of the Keukenhof being filled with millions of tourists, all with cameras, bent over the flowers, completely oblivious to the world outside them and flowers.

Nothing could be closer to the truth.

And I am not innocent of this - I went through my entire media card in my camera in one day along with both batteries.  I finally had to stop taking pictures, no, not because I wanted to, but because I had to.

But really, I could not help myself.  The outdoor grounds of the Keukenhof are put together by very talented gardeners, who don't just plant the tulips and other flowers, but put them together into very artistic displays.

Unfortunatly, it has been a cold spring, so a lot of the tulips outdoors were still not blooming.  But, there were tons of daffodils and hyacinths (which smell amazing, by the way), along with some cold-weather hardy tulips.

Many of the tulips remained in bud form:

As we ate lunch in the Keukenhof, we found that this duck made a living by sneaking up to people behind this hedge and darting his head out.  I don't know if he was trying to be cute to earn bread, or if he had dreams of being a raptor.

My parents and I make our way across the water.

Seeing all these flowers raises the questionIt taxed my mind - how many different ways can you take a picture of a tulip?

There's the close-up:

Balancing on your toes while hovering overhead:

From the side:

In bud form:

With other tulips receding into the distance:

And from underneath:

Most of the flowers have very creative names.

Finally, we reach the apex of the show.  Especially with it being so cold outside, most of the tulips are blooming inside the main "tulip greenhouse".  There are literally thousands of variety of tulips inside - millions of flowers.  The smell of so many flowers penetrates your very inner being.

My mom immediately took off, taking pictures as she went.  

My dad looks a bit overwhelmed.  He, however, took the longest of all of us to get through the greenhouse.

Later that afternoon, my mom told me "I'm exhausted.  I can't take another picture of a flower."  I actually reached mom's limit!  It lasted only about 15 minutes however, until we saw the next interesting flower.

They even had the rare, man-eating variety of tulip.

Along with these spiny creatures.

So much red!

They even had some concept gardens on display.

All white:

Trailer home:

And the lazy-man's garden.

Some wild animal, loose among the flowers.

And finally, to round out the day, the obligatory "tulip and windmill" photo.