Market days February: tulip fever

We live in a small but lively old city close to Amsterdam. We have it all: the canals, the canal houses, the picturesque bridges, but on a much smaller scale. You can even take a cruise through the canals. This is not a commercial canal cruise like the ones in Amsterdam, the captain and guide are senior citizens volunteering.

Market days

Friday and Saturday are market days in the old city centre. On Fridays, there are actually three separate markets: a very small fish market, a food market and my favourite, the flower market.

The Saturday market is much busier, with market traders shouting loudly to sell their goods, especially right before closing time. It’s full of vegetables, fruit, flowers, fish, meat and more.

I love both market days, each has its own atmosphere, but the Friday flower market is probably my favourite. It takes place at the foot of the Onze Lieve Vrouwetoren (Tower of Our Lady), one of the tallest church towers in Holland. The church that belonged to the tower was destroyed long ago.

In winter, there are only a few flower stalls, but there is always plenty of choices. I always pick up a bunch of fresh flowers for the weekend.

Tulip fever

February was, of course, all about tulips. If you follow me on Instagram you may have noticed a slight tulip obsession this last month. Someone even politely asked me if I ever heard of Tulipmania. I like to buy flowers that are in season and these days there is an abundance of choice in tulips. They come in almost every colour, who can resist them? Choosing which to pick is the hardest part.

I love the way the tulips are tightly packed in paper waiting to be taken home.

I’m thinking of documenting the changing of the seasons by photographing the flower displays at the market. If you are interested whether my Tulip mania will continue, next month I will show you the market days of March.