velvet | The Netherlands
delft-antique-market-photo

Velvet moments: travel photo – antique market in Delft

If you love antique markets, you’ll love the open-air Antique Market in Delft, an historic town situated between The Hague and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Held every Saturday between mid-April and mid-September along the canals of Delft, the Antique Market has hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of antiques (Delft Blue porcelain is popular), jewellery, [...]

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sunset-winter-amsterdam-photo

Velvet moments: travel photo – a winter sunset in Amsterdam

What a difference a few days make. Last weekend, I went for a long walk along the frozen canals of Amsterdam and in the countryside. There were many activities on the ice in Amsterdam – a classical concert, people partying, speed-skating competitions and many others, like me, who simply went for a stroll. Today, there’s [...]

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ice-skating-canals-amsterdam-photo

The Dutch winter frenzy

It’s that time of the year again, when the thermometer hanging outside my window shows a lower reading than the display on my freezer. When I first moved to the Netherlands more than 20 years ago, one of the first things that caught my attention was the Dutch people’s preoccupation with ice. As soon as [...]

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spring-sheep-flowers-holland-photo

Velvet moments: travel photo – fields of tulips in Holland

One of my favourite things to do (and something I recommend to everyone) in the spring is to go for a drive, a stroll or a bike ride around the tulip fields in Holland. The most famous tulip region can be found around the town of Lisse (where the popular Keukenhof gardens are located), southwest [...]

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noordwijk-sunset-photo

Velvet moments: travel photo – Noordwijk beach sunset

Noordwijk aan Zee is a beach town in the Netherlands, about a 45-minute drive southwest of Amsterdam. The town is especially popular in the summer. On beautiful winter weekends, the locals flock to the beach for a stroll to enjoy the cold breeze, the sound of the waves and the magnificent sunsets.

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Amsterdam-Airport-Schiphol-photo

Things to do on transit at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

The man sitting next to me on the plane looked a bit flustered. We were about to land at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol after an eight hour flight from Vancouver and aside from the polite “hello” when I settled in my seat, we didn’t speak a word to each other throughout the flight. He turned to [...]

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High wine at The Dylan Amsterdam

  Afternoon tea is a centuries-old English tradition of late-afternoon indulgence: a cup of freshly-brewed tea accompanied by a selection of pastries and bite-sized sandwiches. This quintessential English tradition was introduced in many of the ex-British colonies, including Malaysia, where I grew up, where it became commonly known as high tea. It was something I [...]

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rotterdam-port-aerial-view

Plane views: Rotterdam

Rotterdam is the main port of the Netherlands and is the country’s second largest city after Amsterdam. It’s also one of the world’s largest ports. Located at the mouth of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt delta, Rotterdam is often called the “Gateway to Europe” as it handles a large percentage of cargo to and from Europe. The city [...]

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schiphol-airport-view-from-air-photo

Plane views: Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the main international gateway to the Netherlands and a major air hub in Europe. Schiphol (pronounced ‘skip-hol’) Airport handled more than 45 million passengers in 2010, about 3 times the population of the Netherlands, making it the fifth busiest airport in Europe and 15th in the world. On a recent flight [...]

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Holland at its best

My earliest impressions of Holland before moving here in the 1990′s were of a country below sea-level, protected by impressive dikes and an extensive network of waterways; massive fields of flowers and grazing cattle; windmills; picturesque villages; farmers wearing clogs; and endless canals. The ‘Kop van Noord Holland’ or ‘the head of North Holland’ is [...]

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