A blanket of grey fog surrounds us as Henk van Leeuwen, my Dutch skipper and guide, steers our motorboat on Westeinderplassen (West End Lakes), the largest inland water area in North Holland.
With just one sailing boat, a fisherman, and a few ducks, herons and moorhens joining us on the water, there’s an eerie serenity as we pass house boats, a yacht club and marinas.
In summer, Van Leeuwen and his colleagues give guided tours of the lake up to four times a day while throngs of boaters pass through the waters.
But you don’t need a boat to visit. At one end of the complex of lakes is Aaslmeer, which is 45 minutes from Amsterdam by train and bus (or half an hour by car).
“In the busy times, you’ll find people sailing to and from Amsterdam (the journey takes two hours),” says Van Leeuwen.
Plus, with direct London–Amsterdam Eurostar trains having resumed earlier this month, there are fewer stops en route
Aalsmeer, dubbed the flower capital of the world, is home to a flower auction that stretches over an area of about 200 football fields with stock from 50 countries. It takes place throughout the year and the public can visit.
On the lakes, we pass through a maze of around 300 islands – little gardens filled with shrubs and the odd wooden bench or shed.
“All of these islands were used for horticulture until 1960, but then it became fashionable to own an island by the lake,” says Van Leeuwen.
He snapped one up for €7,000 25 years ago and says it must be worth three times as much now. But you can’t build on the islands. “People rock up on their boat and hang out in their garden.”
Towards the end of the one-hour boat trip, he points at another lush isle. “That’s the community island where people can stay for free for 48 hours. There’s room for about 30 boats.”
While the opportunity is there for Van Leeuwen to expand his business due to increasing number of visitors – both Dutch and international (Aalsmeer attracts about 65,000 tourists a year, with the majority from the Netherlands), he says he’s happy to live a more comfortable life.
“I don’t want to create a big firm,” says Van Leeuwen, who moonlights as Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas.
As we step off the boat, I ask Van Leeuwen what he likes about Aalsmeer. “It’s a close-knit community,” he says. “My family have been living here since 1630. It’s like a village.”
The first flower trading took place in Aalsmeer around 1910. Now, in a typical weekday, about 43 million flowers and five million plants change hands.
But it’s quieter in the Historical Garden. Here I learn how Aalsmeer developed into a horticulture haven, starting with trees around 1600, followed by strawberries in 1800 and later switching to flowers and lilac trees.
By 1970, much of the region was filled with greenhouses. Now, many are storage facilities.
Aalsmeer also has a Flower Art Museum, set up in 2018. Outside, director Constantijn Hoffscholte shows me a wall filled with tiny pictures. “We asked people to send in flower-themed pictures during Covid and we received 35,000 images,” he says.
A visit to the region isn’t complete without learning about its geography. So I visit the nearby municipality of Haarlemmermeer, made up of 31 villages. It looked very different a century ago.
At the Cruquius Pumping Station Museum, I discover that the land I’m walking on is a polder, reclaimed from the water. Frank Francken, a guide, explains that there used to be a huge lake here that often flooded the region. This was drained by three pumping stations and transformed into fertile agricultural land.
What stands out is the landscape, especially during tulip season (March to May). But you can still find adventure – minus the tourists – by whizzing around the region in an electric, two-person Renault Twizy. They are available for hire to tour the flower fields and nearby beaches.
After picking up the little car, my guide and I purr past canals, flower fields and villages before making our first pit stop at Lola’s, a popular lakeside restaurant in the village of Abbenes.
We order some vegan carrot cake, before venturing past the last of the tulip fields to the Olmenhorst Estate, an organic apple and pear tree farm.As it’s a sun-filled day, an al fresco lunch of salad and sandwiches feels like the right way to spend the afternoon. Soon, this lake district will be filled with blooming tulip fields too. Could there be a better way to see in spring?
Getting thereThe writer travelled to Amsterdam via Omio, an online booking platform, and was a guest of Visit Aalsmeer and Visit Haarlemmermeer.Eurostar tickets from London to Amsterdam start from £39 one way,eurostar.com. Take the train and bus for around 45 minutes to Aalsmeer.Or it is 30 minutes by taxi.
Staying thereHotel Aals meer, in the centre of Aalsmeer, has rooms from €95 (£79) a night, hotelaalsmeer.nl.Hotel Twenty Three in Hoofddorp has rooms from €85, hoteltwentythree.nl.
Where to visitcruquiusmuseum.nlaalsmeer-watertoren.nlrenzy.nlflowerartmuseum.nlwesteinderrondvaart.nl
Where to eat and drinktuinhuisaalsmeer.nljosephaandepoel.nlpapashouses.comkrishnavilas.comolmenhorst.nlmondirestaurant.com/skybar747
More informationvisitaalsmeer.nlvisithaarlemmermeer.nl
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