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"Dekha Yek Khaab Tho Ye Silsile Huye,
Door Tak Nigaha Me Hai Gul Khile Huye…"
Remember the song in Silsila which was shot in the exotic locales of Holland, Netherlands. The colors of the Tulips in that song are a festival to the eyes. Especially the aerial shots.
Here in Michigan we have a mini Holland where the Dutch people have
settled. Every Year in May they have this Tulip Festival where Tulips of
different colors are planted
across huge farms and are opened for the people for seeing. This place
is 2 ½ hours of drive from Detroit. There are three places of interest.
First one is the Windmill
Island, Second is the Dutch Village itself and the third is the Tulip
Farm.
We(Anna, Me, Attayyagaru and my cousin) started early in the morning at 7.00 and we reached Windmill Island at 9.30 AM. Vadina and the kids were home since rain was forecasted. This is a small island very near to the main land. It has a huge windmill "De Zwaan" which is of the height of a 12-Storeyed Building. This Windmill is 230 years old and is still in working condition. Netherlands is known world over for their Wind Mills. They use it for power generation, drawing water from wells and grinding grains. There was a film at the office nearby about the culture of the Dutch people, Windmills and how they use them, tulips etc etc. This one was imported from Netherlands on a condition that it is used for grinding Wheat which they do still. They have six floors with each floor handling different duties like Unloading, Separating the grain from dust, Packaging, Grinding etc. At the top floor they have the gears and grinding stones which are 4 tons in weight. There are huge doors on both sides of the mill for the carriages to come directly in to the mill and then go through the other way. There were representatives mostly Dutch people who explained how each activity was undertaken. All of them wore wooden shoes, which were surprisingly very light. They wear them because everything inside the mill is made of wood and in Rainy Season and Winter it is difficult to walk wearing the ordinary shoes. There were Tulip gardens here also but were constrained to some places. There were other stalls which contained Wooden shoes, Other decorations (Dutch people are known for their miniature art. In Amsterdam I saw a lot of shops.) then there were merry-go-rounds with horses etc for children.
It was raining in the morning(It rains usually when ever I think of going out - It has something to do with my iron leg which all of them reminded me off all through the journey) but slowly it subsided once we came out of the Wind Mill. I was praying that it should stop so that we can see the Tulips at the farms without obstruction. Somebody said, the rain is bad for us but very good for the Tulips because they were looking a lot fresh. Then we had our lunch and started for the Tulip Farms. It was a good decision to come to the Windmill first instead of going to the Tulip Farms because it was raining in the morning and it was good to be inside the mill and also not many people were there. But once the rain subsided there were huge numbers of people who have come from the Tulip Farms to see the mill first due to the rain.
Then we went to the Tulip Farms which were about 20 Minutes drive from the Wind Mill. My first reaction seeing the colors was that I was spell bound. It was a very beautiful site. I observed that the people were 95 % Orientals (Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Japanese etc). I thought the rain was good to come. The Tulips were looking very fresh. The rain stopped. The ground was a bit sloppy but the Tulips of different colors arrested the eyes. I clicked and clicked. I think I took around 25 pictures on the whole. I and my brother tried some serious photography with close-up shots of the Tulips with rain drops on them. We have an agreement. All the photos which come up very nice are taken by my brother. We spent around 2 ½ hours there among the Tulips (Red, Yellow, Pink, Crimson, Brown) I think my knowledge about colors is very limited. My only disappointment was that I did not have an elevated position from which I could take some good pictures(Aerial Shots). I met my classmate there. It was the first time we met after coming to the USA. Then there was a huge store where they had in-house factories to make Crockery, Flower pots, Wall hangings etc and also wooden shoes. They were also selling plants(Tulips, Roses etc), bulbs, Seeds etc.
Then we stopped to have some coffee and then started home. We reached home early bypassing the traffic rush which would have increased if we stopped a little longer.
Overall it has been a very good trip thanks to Anna and Vadina who made
this trip possible. Probably next time we will show the kids all the colors.
Then I can learn the names of all the colors from them???