Homesick for Holland? Go to Pella, Iowa! After one weekend you will feel revived. The city motto is "A Touch of Holland" and there is a whole lot of it. Especially during the Tulip Time Festival is Pella one big Dutch City. If the weather cooperates like it did when we visited, then it even feels cold and damp like in the Netherlands. But, with good weather you can probably enjoy the thousands of tulips and Dutch traditional costumes quite a bit more.
Going to Pella from Minnesota is not difficult: take the I-35 south and turn left at Des Moines. That's all. It is about a 5 hours drive from the Cities. The I-35 is almost straight, you can't loose your way.
Arriving in Pella is like coming home. It turns out that the city ordinances require every new building to have a Dutch front. That makes it difficult to find the red roof of McDonalds, it is hidden behind a red brick front, roof tiles and green-red-and-white fake shutters. Even Wall*Mart has a Dutch front. Some buildings are straight copies of Dutch farms or city buildings. Around the Public Square Park in the center of Pella manu houses have beautiful Dutch fronts, all shapes are represented.
Pella has not one, but a number of windmills. At the Public Squer you will find an information booth and real estate agent office in the form of a windmill. There is a bank with a windmill, when the mill turns the bank is open. Also, in the Sunken Gardens Park there is a windmill situated between the tulips and next to a pond in the form of a wooden shoe. But most of all Pella has a real Dutch windmill.
The Vermeer windmill in Pella is the tallest windmill in the United States. It grind wheat to flour for local use by artisan bakeries. The windmill is in the middle of town, in the Pella Historic village. In the historic village you will find a miniature Dutch village and a wooden shoe maker, but also other historic building from the history of Pella. After you have been to the Historic Village Museum Shop you may also want to visit the local shops. They sell anything Dutch: wooden shoes, Vollendammer hats, tiles with wise observations and a lot more. The local fabric store sells patterns and fabric you need for making Dutch traditional costumes, something you will not find in the Netherlands.
There is more you will not find in the Netherlands! During the three days of the Tulip Time festival you will find hundreds of people walking around in Dutch traditional costumes. In 2010 they tried to break the world record wooden shoe dancing with 2500 people dancing on wooden shoes around the Public Square Park. A nice sound and wonderful spectacle. Then there is the parade on Saturday. Before the parade there is a re-enactment of the cheese market in Alkmaar, and a massive collaboration to clean the streets with water and brushes. The parade takes one-and-a-half-hour to pass the grandstand and features traditional Dutch costumes from every province in the Netherlands.
Pella is wonderful to visit. It is more than a Touch of Holland. It is Holland enhance with the pride of Pella.
