I guess I missed it in history class, or at least forgot it, but Holland is famous for its tulips, and it Keukenhof Garden is one of the most photographed spots in the world. With only about two weeks left in France, I decided that I needed to stop by Holland before I left.
I traveled by train to the city on the Thalys, which has an addicting commercial before movies in UGC cinemas right now:
Unfortunately, I didn't see a green glitter lobster on the train, but the ride went off without a hitch.
I arrived in Amsterdam and walked to my hotel, which was about a mile from the train station. I only had one minor hiccup along the way, and I got to cross over so many canals! After checking in at my hotel, I went to Burger King for supper, very typical, right? I guess I was most fascinated by the fact that everywhere, even fast food places, the employees greeted customers in English. It was somewhat as though Flemish didn't even exist.
The next day I started out fairly early and took my time walking to the pickup point for my tulip tour. Along the way, I came across a fair set up in Dam Square by the palace. I paid an arm and a leg for tickets to get on the Ferris Wheel, but then i got a few good aerial views of the city. I shared my carousel with a Hungarian woman whose husband was from Amsterdam, and we switched sides so that we each could get the different views of the city. She also gave me a few suggestions on what to do in Amsterdam, and I followed some of her advice the next day. Then, though, I was off to see the tulips!
On the bus to the Keukenhof Gardens, I got quite a bit of trivia. There are more bikes in Amsterdam than people. The canals in Amsterdam are 3 meters deep: 1 meter water, 1 meter bikes, and 1 meter mud (which might be true - there are plenty of youtube videos showing bikes being pulled out of the canal by huge cranes). Flemish is a language that no one wants to learn. There used to be a lot more windmills than there are today. The tulips fields are not in existence to cultivate the tulips themselves, but rather to cut off the blooms and harvest the bulbs for sale. We even drove by some old Sugar Silos that have been renovated into apartments, and now they're called Sugar City.
When we arrived at the gardens, it was packed! Il y avait du monde! It was a free day to get in, so I suppose maybe it would have been cheaper to not take a tour bus there, but you know hindsight. I decided to just wander the gardens. I took my time meandering through the colorful blooms, and I got a few snacks along the way (fresh strawberries, yum!). It was pretty hot, and I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. Throughout the gardens there were many things to see and do in addition to looking at the flowers: a windmill to be visited, a petting zoo, a playground area for kids, and places to see more flowers indoors. They even had some clogs and clog craftsmanship demonstrations!
After about six hours, I had had a beautiful day wandering, but it took a lot out of me. One of the things I shoulda coulda woulda done was the boat rides on the canals through nearby tulip fields. I got to the ticket booth a couple of hours into my time there, and their tickets were already sold out until a half hour before I would have to leave, so it just didn't happen. I did get to see the fields from across the canal, though.
When I got back to Amsterdam, I decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for supper. It was fairly near my hotel, and I felt that I could get back to that area without a map. Well, I took a wrong turn along the way, and I got sooooo lost! With all of the canals, each section of the city was a bit like a little island, and I was on the right 'island', but I was on the opposite side of where I needed to be. So, after a lot of walking, I finally made it to the restaurant.
I had noticed that there was seating on the water, so I requested to go back there. It was a bit freaky - there was only about two feet of walking room between the table edge and the water, and my waiter told me that he had a buddy that worked there that had fallen into the water twice. Talk about job benefits! Anyway, I ended up staying a lot longer than I intended since my food never came out. The perk of that was that I got apple strudel and chamomile tea for free after my meal finally arrived. I wasn't really paying attention to the time between reading and people watching, but I'd hazard a guess that I was waiting for about an hour. It was rather fun sitting right on the water. There were 'party' boats that came by every once in a while, blasting music, trying to get attention, and it was fun to see all of the attention they received. At one point, a girl got onto one of the boats pretty near the restaurant. It's anyone's guess whether she was spontaneously joining them or if they had planned to meet her there.
My third and last day, I checked out early and went to do the canal 'taxi', or rather, the hop-on hop-off bus in boat version. It was nice to see the city this way, going past the house boats, and when my only real hop off was at the Anne Frank house.
The house has been renovated with the houses on either side of it so that you can walk up through the house like through a museum, and then walk back down through a real museum about the holocaust. The house is left unfurnished in respect of Otto Frank's wishes, but he allowed the house to be re-created with all of the furniture he had and there were pictures of how it once was in each of the rooms. The stairs were something that I was not expecting since they were so narrow and steep that it was like climbing a ladder. The hidden section of the house was hidden by a bookcase, and one had to duck down and step up to get past the low wall and up the stairs. The hidden part of the house was quite large, but at the same time, it was tiny for all of the people that were staying there.
It was heartbreaking to think about the devastation that came from the holocaust, and the struggles of this one family in particular. It is a miracle that Anne's diaries even survived, and we're fortunate that her father was willing to read them and remember her and share her with the world. Her diary is one of the most translated books of all time, and it was clear that people loved her just by how many people were at the museum. I believe I waited for over an hour just to get inside the house, it was that packed, and it wasn't even really a vacation time, so I can't imagine how many people visit it in the summer.
To brighten my day afterwards, I went to a nearby stand and got an order of fries along with a Dr. Pepper (score!). I ate that as my lunch as I waited for the next canal taxi, and I stayed on it throughout the rest of the city. I decided to get off at a place on the canal route map called the Sea Palace, which I thought might be an aquarium but turned out to be a floating Chinese restaurant.
From there, I walked back to the train station across a man-made island that is being built up into high-end apartments, cafes, and restaurants. I had a few minutes to kill before my train, and I realized I forgot to buy playing cards. I tried the tourist office first without any luck, then I went into a tourist shop of ill repute that mainly had racy or mj playing cards, but they also had one pack of innocent looking ones with the countryside on them. I went for the ones with the countryside. Then, I was going back to Paris!
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