Tag Archives: Holland

Madurodam. 1:25. First part.

28 Mar

This is the ratio between the real buildings and the copies from this miniaturist city near Hague. In fact, the buildings in Madorodam (this is the name of the small toy town) are all copies 25 times smaller than the real building from around Holland. Everything in Madurodam respect this ratio. 1:25. If you’re in Hague you must have a trip to Madurodam, it’s something unique. You’ll see in the pictures what a thoroughly work was made with the small buildings…it’s amazing! And all the vehicles, boats and even airplanes that are moving around the emblematic buildings, everything is stunning! It’s a heaven for the children, but also for the adults… I ignored the falling rain and walked by the alleys in this fantastic town.

Some statistics about Madurodam:

- miniature town surface area: 18,000 square meters
- inhabitants: 66,000
- cars and trucks: 4,542
- kilometers per year per car: 14,000
- kilometers per year per train: 16,000
- trains: 13
- trams: 5
- rail and tram tracks: 4,250 meters
- aircrafts: 15
- number of cases in baggage system: 500
- miniature trees: 5,236
- flower bulbs: 30,000
- lights in the miniature town: 50,000
- railway sleepers: 80,000
- ships: 40

 

Some other interesting facts:

- Madurodam is not only an amusement park or exhibition; it is also a war memorial. Opened in 1952 to commemorate war hero and resistance fighter George Maduro who died on 9 February 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp. The parents of George Maduro financed the miniature town, intending to donate the profits to a good cause: The Students Sanatorium. To the present day the Stichting Madurodam Steunfonds supports charities related to young people .

- Queen Beatrix was the first mayor of Madurodam. She held the post from the opening until her coronation in 1980. Queen Beatrix is currently the patroness of Madurodam. Since 1980, a new mayor has been chosen each year by the young municipal council of Madurodam, which consists of 22 secondary school students from The Hague.

 

I hope I raised curiosity in you to go and visit the wonderful city of Madurodam. Now, the photos. Click on them to see the full size, it worths!!!! I took so many pictures that I’m forced to split this post in two parts. Enjoy.

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Madurodam. 1:25. Second part.

28 Mar

The second part, as a continuation of the first part, contains only photos. Again, you can click on them to see the full size of the photos. It’s worthing the effort!!! By the way, don’t stare too much at me…it was an awful rain and I was so enthusiastic with the miniature city that I walk for more than 30-40 minutes in the full rain to see the streets and buildings of Madurodam. This was not a fashion session :D

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Flora Holland – the world of flowers

21 Mar

Yes, I’m back home now after the second “Amsterdam experience”. The conclusions will be in the last post about this trip; if you wait for an answer if it worths to visit A’dam, there should be only a full YES, but there are things that must be analyzed more. That will be in the last post about this travel. Now it’s time for a visit to the Flower Market in Aalsmeer. This is the largest flower auction in the world. Some statistics about it:

number of auction rooms: 13

number of auction clocks: 40

number of employees: 4,500

turnover (per year): 4 billions euros

number of flowers and plants sold (per year): 12 billions

number of flowers and plants sold every day: 48 millions

The auctions starts every day at 6 A.M. and ends around 8 A.M. and everything happen exactly like in a financial market. Everyday the transactions are around 16 millions euros which is impressive. The most of the flowers goes to Africa and Israel. Flora Holland is a cooperative, this means that the members – approximately 6,000 growers – are the owners of the business. With an extremely good management, the time between the moment when the flowers are at the farm and the moment that the same flowers are in a different country ready to be sold is less than a day. Now you can see some photos and a small video (pay attention, the sound could be annoying, set the volume to low). I hope you’ll enjoy, it’s something that you can’t see everyday, that’s why I thought will be interesting to host it on my blog. I was there Friday morning, but not that early to actually see the auctions. If you click on the pictures, you can see the full size. Enjoy.

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Sunny day in Amsterdam

16 Mar

There are more than 3 years since my last visit in Amsterdam. The last time was for a new year party and all the days that I stayed (10!) there was no sun at all. But, yesterday was the first time that I’m in Amsterdam and it’s such a sunny atmosphere, no clouds at all and a warming sun. A great day to see the beautiful city, to enjoy the splendor of an old town preserved so well. Did you knew that A’dam is the city with the most well preserved old buildings in the world ? There are more than 6,000 monumental houses in this small city. And nothing compares to admire those buildings sitting on a bench in front of the (non-smelling) Canals in a bright sunny day. So, for my second day (yesterday) I’ve chose to hung around the old part (and not so touristic) of the city, in the area south bounded by Frederiks Plein. I don’t like the major touristic places because there is too much noise and dialects are distracting me from the beauty of the vicinities. Today I have some other plans: to visit the museum of purses and bags (sounds interesting, isn’t it ?), and to have some night walk around the famous Redlight District.  The next day maybe I’ll travel to Hague and Rotterdam, why not ? Enjoy the pictures and if you want to see full size you only have to click on them. Sorry about the distance used in these photos, but I had to manage taking the pictures by my own.

 

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