... before I retired to my cabin to pack and sleep for a while -- it was the last night on board.

Tulips.

Tulpen.

Egmond. Noord-Holland.

Voor de liefhebbers onder ons die wel een beetje van Photoshoppen houden :)

I thought maybe it was about time that I posted some more pictures.... So here they are!

Another photo of it, as we lined up on deck to be briefed about our lifeboat.

Flower field of pink hyacinths with the occasional purple hyacinth.

... enables this man to lower a bucket of paint to his colleague waiting on the dockside!

... making me think of the Queen Elizabeth 2... my first love in ships.

If I can make out the name on the ship in the background, she is the Ottawa Express.

Our first destination. Sadly, closed, as it was Queens' Day. But we had a good look at the exterior anyway, and managed to take a moment inside the café too.

en.beurs-van-berlage.nl/index.php

I was told afterwards that the new CMV logo was stuck onto the funnel with a post-it note!

This is when we are said to have hit the wooden dock wall sufficiently to have damaged it visibly. Marco Polo only had a few square inches of scraped paint to show!

'Farm and Little Bulb field near a Ditch' - by Antonie Lodewijk Koster

Each deck has both a name and a number. I found the numbers very much easier to retain!

Large field of flowering bright red tulips in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands

Pacific Deck, two decks down from my cabin. This alleyway showed the sheer of the ship, which was quite pronounced and rather beautiful.

Boot tochtje op een mooie april zaterdag middag tussen de bollenvelden/Boattrip between the bulbfields on a sunny saterday afternoon

outdoorbare commented recently that as I lived in holland I should post some pictures of tulips...

Whilst out walking in the dunes near egremont we passed some tulip fields. You can see here how they are grown in narrow rows, each row often flowering at a slightly different time to ensure the harvest lasts over a number of weeks...

Fly to this location (using Google Earth)

Bulbfield, Bant's Carn, St Mary's, Scilly Isles

Taken from the narrow path towards the gangway where we were allowed to walk. Very annoying security precautions!

... not "Purser's Office". I was not too sure about those Buddhas in niches over the desks...

Bollenvelden bij Noordwijk, flowerfields in Holland

South-Holland landscapes -

In the 17th century (1630 - circa 1637) a bizarre tulip mania arose in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , also known as "tulip-rung", "tulip madness", "tulip mania" or "bulb-madness": tulip bulbs suddenly became speculative merchandise . The madness pushed up prices to an exorbitant level, even until the bulb was worth its weight in gold. The craze was at its peak at the end of 1636, beginning of 1637. In February 1637, the "bulb market" collapsed just as suddenly as it had emerged; many bulb speculators remained destitute. Tulips were grown in all sorts of colors and depicted on still lifes by artists, such as Nicolaes van Verendael . Often the stripes on the flower were not genetically determined, but the result of a virus infection .

Keukenhof Gardens in Holland.

We were here for the second sitting. Our table arrangements did not quite work out, and I ended up having only one and a half meals at this table -- but it was a good table in good company!

Nederland, Flevoland, Noordoostpolder, 16-04-2012; IJzerpad met bloembollenvelden die op het punt van bloeien staan. Boerderijen en kavels op regelmatige onderlingen afstand, voorbeeld van moderne grootschalige polder met rationele verkaveling. De aanleg van de polder maakte deel uit van de Zuiderzeewerken (plan Lely) en viel in 1942 droog. De meeste boerderijen (en dorpen) zijn van na de tweede wereldoorlog. The northeast polder (NOP), is an example of modern large-scale polder with rational allotment. The construction of the polder was part of the Zuiderzee Works (Lely plan), in 1942 the polder was dry. Most of the building, farmhouses and villages, is post-war.

QQQ

luchtfoto (toeslag), aerial photo (additional fee required)

foto/photo Siebe Swart

Nederland, Flevoland, Noordoostpolder, 16-04-2012; Noordermeerweg, overzicht van de polder met rechts het IJsselmeer. Voorbeeld van moderne grootschalige polder met rationele verkaveling. De aanleg van de polder maakte deel uit van de Zuiderzeewerken (plan Lely) en viel in 1942 droog. De meeste boerderijen (en dorpen) zijn van na de tweede wereldoorlog. The northeast polder (NOP), is an example of modern large-scale polder with rational allotment. The construction of the polder was part of the Zuiderzee Works (Lely plan), in 1942 the polder was dry. Most of the building, farmhouses and villages, is post-war.

QQQ

luchtfoto (toeslag), aerial photo (additional fee required)

foto/photo Siebe Swart

... to a tunnel under the Schelde River. Reminded me of the escalators of the London Underground -- old and deep.

Not open that day, it being Queens' Day. The café staff were in attendance though, serving drinks on the square. They allowed us to catch this quick glance of the café. The main hall of the building was in darkness, but very imposing to see.

Where I live, in April the bulbfields start to flower again. If you could only smell these hyacinths!

Nederland, Flevoland, Noordoostpolder, 16-04-2012; IJzertocht, met bloembollenvelden die op het punt van bloeien staan. Boerderijen en kavels op regelmatige onderlingen afstand, voorbeeld van moderne grootschalige polder met rationele verkaveling. De aanleg van de polder maakte deel uit van de Zuiderzeewerken (plan Lely) en viel in 1942 droog. De meeste boerderijen (en dorpen) zijn van na de tweede wereldoorlog. The northeast polder (NOP), is an example of modern large-scale polder with rational allotment. The construction of the polder was part of the Zuiderzee Works (Lely plan), in 1942 the polder was dry. Most of the building, farmhouses and villages, is post-war.

QQQ

luchtfoto (toeslag), aerial photo (additional fee required)

foto/photo Siebe Swart

... by London Underground.

The amazing light late in the afternoon and the last bit of clouds vanishing to elsewhere

... on 6 November 2007. Britain had caught up!

... on the bridge wing.

And a wind turbine, which seems to be so small now :)