Once upon a time, I became a GIANT...

"I was like walking in an old city of civilization...like a victorious warrior conquering The Kingdom of Netherlands..."

At the back is the St. John's Basilica construction started in 1380. I sat down but still taller than the trees...

Welcome to the mini-wonderland of Madurodam, a miniature city located between Scheveningen and The Hague of Netherlands. It is a model of a Dutch town on a 1:25 scale, composed of typical Dutch buildings and landmarks, as are found at various locations in the country. This major Dutch tourist attraction was built in 1952 and has been visited by tens of millions of visitors since then. The miniature city was named after George Maduro, a student from Curaçao who died at Dachau concentration camp in 1945 and whose parents donated the money to start the Madurodam project.
Read more of Madurodam.

Photo 1: The Erasmus bridge in Rotterdam where a number of navigation vessels and luxury ferry boats passes.
Photo 2: We are standing in front of the glassy Head Office of the Nationale-Nederlanden building, an Insurance Company which is 93x150 meters high in real size.




Photo 1: The Dutch Parliament buildings in the Binnenhof, Den Haag (The Hague). You will see of miniature human and horses figure during "Prinjesdag". A ceremony every once a year, the Queen gives a speech setting out government policies for the coming year.
Photo 2: A complete landscape shot of the miniature city.

Click slideshow for more Madurodam pictures from community webshots.

If you have a short time to visit Holland, this incredible place will give you the walking tour of your life - a whole country in a couple of hours. Shorter if you walk fast and avoid the amazing details of the buildings, moving walkways of mini-people going in and out of a church, moving trucks, airplanes on the Schiphol (airport) runway, raising bridges and boats galore! Fishes in the build canals and seas are also quite accomodating to show themselves in the surface. If you have a spare time of about 120 minutes, you got the chance to view the entire country :-)

The workmanship that goes into each piece is incredible, such perfect detail from the small specially grown trees to the dozens of train sets that whizz round the whole park. The moving planes, bridges, boats, cars and merry tunes of street organs will give the atmosphere of being in the city.

All replicas, railways and decorations get build here. Also the trees and plants are grown on scale. On some buildings was worked for more then over four years. First they make precocious pictures from the original building. In the beginning, everything was made from wood, and nowadays also from brass and synthetic material. The replicas are very expensive; like the rebuilding of the Saint John's Basilica will cost more than 450.000 Euro...


Photo 1: Me with the miniature background of Mauritshuis.
Photo 2: Me at the real location of Mauritshuis and standing next is the Prime Minister's chamber in Den Haag. (nice replica huh!)

Well, since it is the "smallest city" of Holland, Princess Beatrix at 14 was appointed first mayoress at its opening. She fulfilled this position until she was crowned Queen in 1980.

Fast Facts:

• Surface area........................18,000 sq. meters
• Inhabitants..................................16,000
• Cars & trucks..................................4,542
• Trains..............................................12
• trams...................................................2
• Railway & tram lines.....................4,000 meters
• Aircraft............................................32
• Traffic control power.........................4 meters
• Number of suitcases on baggage system.....500
• Miniature trees..................................5,236
• Flower Bulbs.....................................30,000
• Lights in the town..............................50,000
• Sleepers (railway)..............................80,000
• Ships.............................................58

All of these are in the park...We hardly finished and see all things since the sun was an oven heating of 29 degrees. Really hot! We can't help it but to rise up our ever sunshield umbrella or else my honey will end up a like a fried upside down egg :-)

Trivia: Do you know that I was completely amazed when I arrived at the park? I thought that Madurodam is a dam or reservoir of waters...like the Angat dam , La Mesa Dam and Wawa Dam in the Philippines. I expected to see dikes, polders, lakes and seas :-)

Photo 1: Angat Dam Photo 2: La Mesa Dam

The Wawa Dam

Hahaha! I was really clueless :-) Now, I know that sometimes what we think is really far from what we get :-) Well, a day in that man-made city was just an extra point actually. We had just spent time with hubby 'coz it was our engagement anniversary...:-) What a treat !

"...that once upon a time, we were like giants carefully walking while exploring around the lovely miniature creations."