No matter how much I enjoy nature, not really caring too much about comfort, I often feel like doing something super touristy. Even when it is in my own little country of The Netherlands. You see, people in other countries often go on holiday within their own country. Duh: many countries are a lot bigger than The Netherlands and have a lot more different sceneries and ‘tribes’. In my country, not so much. Dutch people do not really explore their country very much, except for a few odd ones.

Exploring your country

Yes, I just called myself an odd one. One of the things I appreciated about the lockdowns during covid was that people had the chance to explore their own countries a bit more. I did that a lot, with my friends, doing car rallies, sleeping at hotels, just fun stuff. I must say I also did this before the world started crumbling down, but it was a lot extra during this time (only if we were allowed to ofcourse). There was even a little group of friends formed who started going to these Center Parcs holiday houses: we are still doing that. Heaps of fun and our bond grew so much stronger because of it.

However, I do not see many people still exploring their country. As the matter of fact, last weekend I did an activity that people thought was ridiculous. Well, I loved it. So with my bestie I went to the Tulip Experience Amsterdam. The first real warm days of the year finally arrived and that made us feel like taking pictures in the tulip fields. We did this two years ago too and we still really enjoy those pictures. The flowers look so beautiful, the sun makes our faces light up and it just comes together very nicely.

Tulip Experience Amsterdam

It is quite touristy: you pay an entrance fee, enter some kind of museum-type thing and then you can go outside and enjoy the tulip fields. They have all these different kinds of tulips on every few meters which makes it worth while to visit many of them. It takes you approximately 45 minutes to 1,5 hour to do the whole experience. The pictures look fantastic and my friend and I really had a very fun afternoon. Other Dutchies found it odd: why would you pay to take photos near tulips, you can just go to a field nearby and stand in it, right? Well, not really. May be in the olden days you could, but many farmers are not happy you are standing on their property and they are afraid you will destroy their flowers. Paying an entrance fee to visit a field of beautifully grown tulips is a lot nicer. Why bother other people? Plus, the Tulip Experience Amsterdam is lots of fun: awesome apple pie, a cute little market with all these tulip things and the chance to pick 5 tulips that you could take home.

The people that have been telling me I am crazy for doing something so touristy so unneccessarily, are the ones that hardly ever explore their own country or city anymore. So I don’t listen. I just smell the flowers. 😉