After years of waiting, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is finally reopening. Housing some of the greatest art in the western world, the museum should offer vacationers sufficient reason to head to Netherlands for a vacation and provide locals with an up close look at their hometown's heritage. 

Winter has stolen the colour from Amsterdam. The most poignant evidence of the long, bitter months lies buried beneath the tulip beds at Hortus Botanicus. This is the historic garden that contains botanical treasures plundered from Java, South Africa and the Caribbean during the Golden Age in the 17th and 18th centuries. By early April, your field of vision in this garden in the city should be saturated with primary colours. Instead, even the green shoots are tinged with grey. Most of the bulbs are still in hiding.

Happily, elsewhere the city is ablaze with colour this weekend – because Amsterdam's new Golden Age is dawning. The orange carpet has been rolled out for the final major duty of Queen Beatrix before she abdicates in favour of her son, Willem-Alexander, at the end of April.

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