1936 On the Continent

Maastricht) are provinces of a very different character, but nevertheless well worth visiting. The train journey from Amsterdam to Arnhem takes 1½ hours, to Leeuwarden 3½ hours, and to Masstricht 5 hours.
Amsterdam
    Amsterdam, the town of a thousand bridges (to be correct, there are 400 of them, which is a very respectable figure), with its tree-bordered canals, its art treasures, would require an entire volume to be dealt with properly. But Amsterdam is not an antiquated place, a Mecca for those who love the old and quaint. Amsterdam is the pulse of the Netherlands as regards commerce and shipping. Although taxi-cabs are very cheap—about 40 cents (1s.) a journey within the town, though you cannot tip a taxi-driver less than 15 or 20 cents (4d. to 6d.)—seeing Amsterdam from the water is a revelation. There are many interesting trips that can be made by boat along the canals in Amsterdam, as well as from Amsterdam to many interesting places in the neighbourhood.
    Another interesting phenomenon in Amsterdam, and in Holland generally, are the throngs of cyclists speeding through the crowded streets. In the whole of Holland (8,000,000 inhabitants, of which about 10 per cent. livein Amsterdam) there are some 3,000,000 bicycles in daily use, one to every three people, including babies and centenarians. This machine is the most democratic conveyance. Labourers, farm hands, clergymen, members of the Government, generals, school children, clerks, shop girls, all ride on their bicycles daily to and from their different occupations. Even Queen Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana occasionally enjoy a spin, even in winter. At The Hague it is quite a common thing to see members of Parliament, as well as Cabinet Ministers, come to the meetings of the First and Second Chambers on bicycles. There is even a regiment of cyclists in the Dutch army. Like other regiments, this cyclists’ regiment has its own military band. And the musicians play their trumpets and flutes riding on their bikes! The drum is attached to the frame of the drummer’s machine, the steering being done by operating the pedals in a mysterious and ingenious way. This may be seen in Breda, in the province of Brabant. In Amsterdam and elsewhere the policemen patrol their beats in pairs on bicycles. Of course, this overwhelming and ever-growing flood of bicycles has caused a permanent parking problem. Every available corner is needed for parking. Clusters of bicycles round the trees and lampposts outside the Royal Palace at Amsterdam are a typical scene in the capital. You can even see bicycles hanging by meat-hooks from the rails outside houses.
Tulip Time
    Bicycles also play a prominent part in the unorganised “flower procession” at tulip time. Children and grownups in many Dutch homes prepare patiently for a day in April or early May, when they startle the world with a blaze of beauty and colour. In the cosy, heated rooms of their homes they nurture hyacinth and tulip bulbs in bulb glasses or in small pots filled with wet sand. And while the snowstorms rage outside the house is filled with the scent of hyacinths, a fragrant promise of spring. But of course this is only a temporary compensation and cannot be compared with the glorious splendour of the endless square fields of red, blue, yellow, rosy and creamy white tulips, hyacinths and daffodils that scent the air all over the bulb region between Haarlem and The Hague on a fine warm day in April.
    Properly speaking, there is only one bulb Sunday, one day on which all the bulb fields around Haarlem are at their best and in full flower, on which their magnificence reaches its peak. Weeks in advance special correspondents from the “bulb front” inform the newspapers of the progress of the “bulb army,” how the tulips and hyacinths keep slowly and gently marching on and on and up and up, how the colours in the fields are brightening day by day from faint shades to flaming colours.
    Tourist clubs aid in circulating information. Maps are drawn up and distributed freely, so that everyone may know how “the land lies” in tulip land. Then come the thrilling, the exhilarating preparations, as a tangible proof that spring is right at the door and summer no longer far away. Those of the Dutch who do not use their bicycles all through summer and winter—their number is very small!—and have put them away for the winter with a lavish coating of vaseline as a protection against rust, now bring them down from