Sunday, 6th April
Heavy rain in the night, although again we both slept well.
The campsite showers scored 9.75 from Annie, and a 9 from me. Very clean, very modern, and with lots of hot water but at the right temperature, and no extra fee. Plenty of room for clothes behind the wall, so they kept dry.
Annie made sandwiches for the day, and after a breakfast of toast and jam, we hit the road on our bikes again. This time, I’d used the TomTom in cycle mode to plot a route to Keukenhof, which seemed to make sense.
Much of the journey was along the side of the canal, which was beautiful and relaxing, apart from the teams of cyclists out for their Sunday training, mopeds and cars all using the very narrow track. Many of the canalside houses were beautiful, with well-tended gardens, and some had horses, sheep or goats. Occasional prods at the TomTom showed us how far we had come, and how far it was to go (and, of course, verified that we were on the right route).
At the main road, we turned, and followed a group of cyclists to the entrance to the Keukenhof, which was closed, because it wasn’t the right entrance. D’oh! The cyclists carried on along the road, and we turned around to ride to the front, and main, entrance, which we couldn’t have missed had we ridden on another hundred yards along the main road.
We were guided forward to the cycle racks, which were immediately opposite the entrance to the park. The Dutch take their cycling seriously. A short bit of queuing, and thirty euros later, we had two entrance tickets and a park guide.
Unfortunately, one of the first things you come to in the park is a gift shop, which called us to it. We bought an enormous ginger cake (from a sample on a plate), and various other bits of Dutch-ery.
The Keukenhof can’t really be described in words (sadly, for me). Suffice it to say, there are a huge number of flowering plants on display in a wonderful, large, and carefully laid-out parkland setting. We visited on a Sunday, so although it was very busy, we never felt as though we were crowded at all. I climbed up the windmill and took photos, we watched the marching band, we took photos of amazing coloured flowers and beautifully arranged gardens, gazed at the orchid displays, and bought more Dutch stuff. We ate our sandwiches on a bench and watched the world pass by (a favourite hobby of Annie’s) in amazing surroundings. The Spring is a wonderful time to tour this part of Holland as it’s Tulip Time. The fields are fabulous patterns of vibrant colour of mainly tulips but other flowering bulbs and plants too. Cycling past a field of rows of blues and purples to pinks and almost overcome by the sweet scent of hyacinths in bloom is powerful stuff.
All in all, we spent around 3 hours in there, and enjoyed every minute. The cycle back to the campsite was cold and tiring, and we were very glad to arrive back before it rained.
