George: I’m George Bauer. Hello from Holland. That’s Holland Michigan and I’m here with my new best friend, June. Welcome to another season of the Seasoned Traveler. It’s a program dedicated to people 50 and above and why not, we’re the fastest growing segment of the population in the US. We have the most disposable income and we love to travel. Now, we begin the second season in Michigan and you may say, what is there to see in Michigan? June knows and I’m about to show you. We’re here in Holland for the tulip time festival, one of the biggest events in the state and it got off to a bang start last night.
Holland is in southwestern Michigan, the 22nd largest state in area with a population of about 10 million people. There are two distinctive parts, the Upper Peninsula or UP and the lower peninsula which looks a lot like a left handed mitten. If you’re looking for a good destination for your next RV or driving vacation, Michigan just may be it. Holland is a colorful town especially during the Tulip Time Festival, a celebration of Dutch heritage and the blooming of the bulbs, millions of them. The tulips are planted along city streets in parks and outside municipal buildings. I’m here for opening weekend along with 200,000 other people. Elbows up and keep moving. The festival runs early May, there are three major parades and there’s plenty of other entertainment, plenty of traditional klompen dancing and plenty to eat and drink.
In 1846, a band of 60 Dutch immigrants left Rotterdam and came here. Tulip growing has been an important industry since the early days. Tulip time first bloomed in 1929 when 250,000 tulips were planted for the event. Nowadays, 6 million tulips bloom. Members of the Dutch Royal Family have been special guests here over the years. At the edge of downtown, Windmill Island is another bit of Holland in Holland.
Male: Of course, our main attraction on Windmill Island is our windmill. It is a 244 year old windmill that came directly from the Netherlands in 1964 and it took about a year to build it.
George: Add to that an honest to goodness organ grinder with occasional help, a 1929 carousel that still belts out the beep and an arts and crafts area. It’s a happening. The 12 storey De Zwaan Windmill also stars in production of a special brew during tulip time. The new Holland brewing company makes a special ale just for the festival. Jason Spalding started the business in 1997.
Jason: One of the unique things we have here in Holland is the windmill that was moved from the Netherlands and it occurred to us one year that the way they used to make beer back hundreds of years ago is that they used to take the grain in the windmill and since we have a unique opportunity for that in town, we take grains for this particular beer, millet to the windmill and bring it back here for the greenhouses.
George: The Dutch village is away from central Holland. It’s an authentic reproduction of a town in the Netherlands dating back some 200 years and while you’re here explore the Wooden Shoe Factory where some footwear is carved by hand, a tradition dating back eight centuries.
Male: There was a disease in the livestock in Europe and people couldn’t buy leather to make shoes so the Hollanders started to make shoes out of wood and it was poplar or willow and because there was no machinery at that time, they had to use hand tools like a hatchet and a saw to start out.
George: Tony still makes shoes from scratch either by machine or by hand. But most of the clodhoppers in this shop are machine made in the Netherlands. I met Sally Lukidus in Holland. She grew up here and knows a thing or two about Dutch klompen dancing.
Sally: I started klompen dancing when I was 15, when I was a sophomore in high school which is the age that most of the klompen dancers begin. We start practicing in January, practice from January through May and then it’s showtime.
George: So she taught me the basics of klompen stomping. The third time was the charm more or less but it just goes to prove the point, you can dress them up but you can’t make them dance.
Head north from Dutch village and you come to Velheer’s, Holland’s only tulip farm and gardens and it’s bulging with bulbs. Gardeners can view the tulips now and buy some for later. They dig up the bulbs and ship them to folks near and far. Adjacent to Velheer’s gardens is DeKlomp Wooden Shoes and Delft Factory, the only place delft is produced in the US and I met the first ever licensed American delft painter in this country. She’s creating what else, tulips but the principle’s the same.
Female: The colors are traditional. We import the glazes in the underglaze, we call them underglaze from a delft factory there. So I’m using the delft colors, I’m just doing a different design but we do all the traditional designs.
Holland extends to the shores of Lake Michigan and some magnificent beaches. Michigan’s great lakes shoreline extends 3288 miles or 5260 km. That is longer than the entire east coast of the United States and there are some wonderful waterfront communities up and down the state. A highlight in Holland is Big Red, the first harbor lighthouse here in built in 1872.
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