Visited Keukenhof (Tulip Garden)

Perhaps the most photographed place on Earth, Keukenhof is the place to be when in Europe in the months of March, April or May. Better known as the Tulip Gardens, this treasure of Holland boasts over 7 million Tulip bulbs hand planted each year. More than 40 million visitors till date have viewed the flowers in person and yesterday, I and Sonia incremented the counter by two.

I will be working on the photos for a long time, but a video slideshow of the photos is here for you to see. Its hosted on youtube, and hence the quality is degraded. Write to me if you wish to see the better quality video.

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Arrived in Amsterdam, first views

I've just moved to Amsterdam and its been a couple of days here. This is from my first email to my friends back in India. I'm just settling here. Work has just began here; the dev guy who is to train me has been keeping really busy due to upcoming release and some sessions with the traders. From tomorrow, I will be sitting with the integrator who sits on the trading floor. I have been told that IT people avoid going to the trading floor, because the traders are always after the IT guys for bugs and feature requests. Its like Saurabh Chandna trying to avoid coming to 5th floor if something or the other keeps now and then. Maybe the guy was exaggerating; I guess I'll soon find out. Amsterdam is a nice place. Its expensive; apart from dairy products, potatoes and perhaps wheat, they import almost everything. I just bought tomatoes from Albert Heijn (pronounced Haain, the j being silent or sounding as a y, AH is to supermarkets what Xerox is to photocopy). Costs 1 Eur 35 cents ...

The holiday season begins

Its the second week of July, and I was pleasantly surprised by the emptiness of the trains. And then it strikes me "Holiday Season is here". The national train system offers discounted travel after 9 AM provided you have a card that costs EUR 55 a year (easily recouped in discounts even if you make two medium-distance round trips a month). But in the months of July and August, you can use these discounted tickets 24 hours a day. The trains are just empty, and the difference is particularly visible in the rush hours.

Avondvierdaagse - The four evenings walks

Every late-spring, groups of schoolkids, some 500000 in total, walk the Avondvierdaagse and stay up late til the evening. What is this strange tradition and is it worth spending time on while staying late in the evening? What is the Avondvierdaagse? It’s basically a community walk that takes place over four evenings. Thousands of children, and some of their teachers and parents, walk either 5, 10 or 15 kilometers per evening. The majority parents decide to walk along behind each other for 5 kilometers so that children actually get to bed before midnight. It is worth noting that, because of the sheer volume of bodies moving in the same direction at one time, it feels like you walk at least twice the 5km distance. Many children are accompanied by one parent, whilst the sane one enjoys the peace and quiet at home. Who takes part in the Avondvierdaagse? Schools, families, sports clubs, walking groups, random people and their dogs. What’s the point of the Avondvierdaagse? The...

Indian in Holland

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