A Day in Hollanda

On our day off last week we decided to go to Huis Ten Bosch.
Huis Ten Bosch is the largest theme park in Japan. It was built, in 1992, as a replica of parts of Amsterdam, Holland (Imagine Epcot Center but with only one country). During spring months they have a Tulip festival where they replace all the flowers in the park with over 250 types of tulips. We had never seen so many flowers! It was absolutely beautiful.

We almost didn't get any pictures because as soon as we entered the park we noticed that the battery on our camera was dying. We ended up purchasing a disposable camera but also I remembered that we could take pictures with our cell phone. Surprisingly, the pictures on the cell phone (the 1st pic in the post) turned out much clearer than the ones from the disposable camera (the pic with us together).

It is very different from the parks in Orlando, FL. I guess there is a difference between a theme park and an amusement park. Huis Ten Bosch is very themed but not much of an amusement park since it doesn't have any major rides. It mostly consists of shops, restaurants, and museums.
They had a "World Bazaar" market showcasing foods, drinks and entertainment from around the world. We caught the Mexican show and the Can Can girls. We thought the Mexican performers were actually from Mexico. However, the Can Can girls all looked American and not French.

Since Holland is known for their cheese, most shops sold a variety of cheeses and/or cheesecakes. I bought a small cheesecake because the taste was very different from cheesecake in the US. It was not as creamy but it was definitely cheesier. It's great to have with wine.

Dom Tower, at a height of over 300 feet, lies in the middle of the park. It is modeled after a famous tower somewhere in Amsterdam, and stands as the symbol of Huis Ten Bosch.

We took the elevator up to the observation deck in Dom Tower and got this great bird's eye view of the park. The rows of homes across the water are actually private residences. It's like a little piece of Holland in Japan. Notice the windmills in the middle left of the picture and the Huis Ten Bosch Hotel in the upper left.

We stuck around to see the nightly fireworks show at 9pm, which was much better than we expected. It featured music from around the world, and consisted of a variety of fireworks.