Tulips in old Amsterdam.... (Wednesday 3 February 2010)

...or at least that was what I felt like singing today as I went into the capital, Willemstad. On the surface it is a picture perfect small Dutch town, with all the signs in Dutch and tall blonde people everywhere. It’s the Caribbean but not as I know it as to date I have (except for Margarita not too far away on another Hilton freebie) only visited islands with an old British connection. On the surface the Dutch seem to have made a better job of it than we did with a better infrastructure and water out of the taps distilled from seawater that you can actually drink. They are so civilised that I even managed to find the Dutch version of liquorice allsorts “Engelse Dops” and very nice they are too!

The town, a UNESCO World Heritage site is situated on an inlet and separated like Buda and Pest by the water into Punda and Otrobanda... The hotel collectivo – sorry, I mean minibus, drops you off on the Otrobanda side. To cross over they have a rather alarming looking “floating bridge” which is moved (dragged by a tug boat) out of the way when the large container ships go into the port. A huge container ship pulled by tugs went though as I was there and it made the beautiful coloured Dutch architecture look like toytown. But today the water was really rough so not sure it would have been walkable anyway. So I take the alternative, the short free ferry trip. Now I don’t know what it is about me and boats but it seems every time I go near one it’s rough water – no change today then. But it did give me the excuse to have a glass of wine for “Dutch” courage for the way back – oh dear, my puns get worse...

The houses are all painted in pretty pastel colours, a hangover from one man in charge who said that the glare of white houses gave him headaches and banned them – the tradition stuck and they do look very nice. But behind the Dutch facade is a thriving muticultural island of which they are justifiably proud. Apparently a lot of the 50 or so nationalities that settled here came because of the religious freedom it offered – well the Dutch do have a reputation for being liberal, free and easy.... The cultural mix is evident in the shops, Spanish, Indian, Chinese and even Fatima’s Fashions selling Arabian garments and hookahs (and by this I mean the pipes that you smoke rather than the women who sit in windows in the real Amsterdam...). But the shops and streets behind the Dutch frontage are less pretty. There are a couple of streets with the usual Watches of Switzerland and Tommy Hilfiger type shops to service the duty free needs of the cruise ships that visit here regularly. The one called Little Holland selling clogs and Delft ware confused me somewhat as most of the tourists who come here are from Holland, but the rest look like a smaller version of 

Folkestone! The currency here, apart of course from the US dollar which is accepted here, is the NAF – the Netherland Antilles Florin. But when you see the price tickets attached to the local fashion in NAF’s it seems strangely appropriate! I did make one purchase however, Ant was telling me to buy a long cotton dress for those tropical evenings so I did – but I think I can hear him pressing the mutton button from here!