There’s no more uplifting sight after a long, dark winter than the intense colour of a vase of sunflowers. Van Gogh thought so, and so, obviously, do the crowds that have made a beeline for Amsterdam and the exceptional sight of three of his sunflower paintings, hanging side by side for the first time since 1888, in company with Gauguin’s paintings on the same theme.

The sunflower works form the centrepiece of Van Gogh and Gauguin, a stunning exhibition that concentrates on the few months in 1888 shortly before Van Gogh’s death, when the two painters tried to set up a new movement in the Yellow House in Arles - the Studio of the South. Apart from being seduced by the sheer gorgeousness of the works, visitors learn why Van Gogh cut off his ear and how the Tokyo sunflowers have been proved to be Vincent’s work.

After basking in the reflected light of all those sunflowers, why not explore some of the attractions of Holland’s smaller towns, all within easy reach of Amsterdam by train? For instance, who could resist a museum that introduces itself with a cheerful “Pling, plong. Pling plong”?

That’s what’s written above the door handle at the entrance to Utrecht’s barrel organ museum (or Nationaal Museum van Speelklok Tot Pierement, to give it its full name), housed in a disused church in the city centre. It’s worth waiting for the guided tour (there’s one every hour), when an energetic student guide, joking in Dutch and English, will take you through the history of clockwork music-makers from the middle ages to the forerunner of the jukebox, a 100-year-old contraption that still rustily plays “O Susanna!”.

The guide winds up the machinery as you pass through to start up the sounds of violin-playing rabbits, musical boxes with bell-playing Chinamen, carillons galore and an eerie “ghost piano” - a Steinway that plays “It Had To be You” by a mysterious vacuum system.

In a side room, small children are perforating strips of paper. Fed into small metal cylinders, these tinkle out automated tunes - creating a minature version of the museum’s exhibits.

But all this is just an overture to the main events: the orchestrions that brought music to dances and festivals in small towns and villages throughout the Netherlands and Belgium from the 1880s to the start of the Second World War. They started small, as street barrel organs, then grew and grew as technology advanced. One after another, the guide turns the wheels of the music machines and the dance halls of the 1920s are brought noisily to life. Children clamber over them, relishing the noise and excitement, and the guide begins to look flushed from the effort - the largest is as big as a couple of double-decker buses.

Everything’s going all at once - organs, whistles, drums, cymbals, flutes - even castanets and cowbells. The volume is tremendous, the ancient church seems to shake and the only possible reaction is to laugh at what a blast it all is.

Utrecht is also the site of the Rietveld-Schroder House, a modernistic temple for design devotees built by a disciple of Mondrian. Or visit a shrine to a shopkeeper, the Museum voor het Kruideniersbedrijf, a kind of memorial to the unknown grocer. These perfectly preserved premises, crammed with the everyday items of a 1930s shopping list, are weirdly fascinating.

If you have more than a couple of days, you could visit the Cheese Museum in Gouda, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden (when I was there the Egyptian exhibit featured the genuine smell of embalmed baboons), or the domestic delights of Simon Van Gijn’s house in Dordrecht, with its attic full of toys.

Van Gogh and Gauguin: Studio of the South, until June 2 at Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam: www.vangoghgauguin.com (it is advisable to book tickets in advance: 020 7808 3871). For more information contact the Netherlands Board of Tourism: www.holland.comNationaal Museum van Speelklok Tot Pierement, Buurkerkhof 10, Utrecht (closed Mondays)Holland Rail passes and tickets: 01962 77 36 46DFDS offers a three-night city cruisebreak from Newcastle to Haarlem from pound;179 per person, including two nights in a two-berth inside cabin with en suite bathroom, Bamp;B at the Golden Tulip Hotel Lion D’Or and transfers (a pound;25 supplement is payable by visitors bringing their own car)

AND WHEN YOU’RE THERE DON’T MISS...

Tulips, Amsterdam - that’s the cliche. But Holland’s annual flower fest is actually at the Keukenhof in Lisse, a bus ride from Leiden and easily accessible from Haarlem, Amsterdam or The Hague (daily until May 20, adults pound;11, children pound;5.50, 0031 252 465 555 or www.keukenhof.nl). But this year, it looks set to be surpassed by the Floriade, an international event held once every 10 years celebrating everything that grows.

The theme of this decade’s Floriade, which opened earlier this month, is “Feel the Art of Nature” and, as well as featuring the cream of Dutch horticulture, with more than a million bulbs and new plants galore, the vast site (pictured) hosts displays from 29 countries, though, controversially, not the UK.

The only way to take is all in is to climb to the top of the giant pyramid at the centre. Elsewhere among the 300 displays, children will like the metal sculptures that whistle, chime, tweet or roar; allotment holders will sigh at greenhouses full of pampered veg that roll, sushi-like, along a conveyor to be fed and watered.

Explanations that lack an English translation are few, and helpful staff are on hand to translate. The only drawback to this fantastic day out is the catering, which has all the appeal and value of a motorway service station.

Floriade 2002, daily until 20 October, 2002. Ticketline: 0870 720 2002; adults, E17, children, E8.50. Bus 300 from Haarlem station