"If you say flowers, you say Aalsmeer " a Aalsmeer Travel Page by Pavlik_NL

Aalsmeer has the world's largest flower auction in the world. A vast percentage of all the flowers in the world are changing owner here fluctuating between 50 and 70%. And then there is the huge flower parade in spring (end of April) that attracts thousands an thousands of visitors every year. So Aalsmeer is flowers!
Furthermore Aalsmeer is the base in The Netherlands of commercial television. Here are the studios of Ende-Mol, that create programms for more then a handfull of TV-channels. Aalsmeer is as well a synonym for TV or studios.

And then Aalsmeer has always been a centre of agriculture. Especially gardening (trees, flowers, bushes etc.) and greenhouse-crops have been the speciality of this region and still is. It's not for nothing that the flowerauction is here. Aalsmeer also means agriculture.
Now-a-days commerce and agriculture are in constant conflict in and around Aalsmeer. The historic items in the town have many times disappeared or are standing side by side with awful new buildings. Aalsmeer sure can look better then it does now, but it's the question whether this ever will happen. Still Aalsmeer holds many great surprises and if not only for a visit to the huge flower auction, then in and around the town there is plenty to see.

Aalsmeer is also a wonderful example of the enduring conflict within the Netherlands of water and land. Canals are running throughout the whole of the town and Aalsmeer is bordering the large "Westeinder Plassen" (Lakes). When standing on the dike between town and lake, you can see very clearly that the water is standing somewhat higher then the surface of the ground on the dry side. This area is well under sea level and the many canals are there to continuously transport the water out of the "polder land".