As I said before - I got up tho morning around 5 - 6 hours sleep was fine for me. Tried to go for some free WIFI at the near by McDonalds. Sadly, not open until 8:00.
3 beautiful "flowers"
Got Connie up around 7:00 and we headed for Amsterdam Centraal Station via the local tram. Quick and convenient - picks us up across the street from out hotel and drops us off right at the train station. We got there 15 minutes earlier than planned. However, Dave and Carol Tivoli were already waiting at the appointed spot. There was some mixup between ten and 2 others that were supposed to join us. A fellow named Fred and a woman named Ronnie (who we've never met) were not waiting where the Tivoli's were supposed to meet. Carol tried texting them both but they never showed.
We said we would meet under the C in Centraal. Pretty close!
Rich and Gayle arrived at about 9:20 and we headed for the train to Leiden. We bought the tickets to Leiden and then back from Haarlem when we arrived on Wednesday. Trains were running about every 10 minutes and one arrived JUST after we got to the track. Fast, quiet and efficient. What more could you ask for?
View from the fort.
Lunch here
Here's the inside of the train station
Along he way we passed MANY fields of tulips. As far as the eye could see. Awesome to see and a hint of what was to be ahead at the Keukenhof Gardens. But more about that later…..
Departed the train at Leiden Centraal and what a nice clean station it was. Outside there were more bikes parked than you could imagine. I mean China has nothing on this! Bikes were actually stacked two high on the racks. We walked around the town for a while - Leiden is a university town. Most everything was closed for Ascension Thursday - a National Holiday in Holland.
Connie and Ann on a bridge over canal with windmill in background.
View from the fort.
Connie on guard duty from the top of the fort?
The highlight of the town was a fort called The Bourse that was built in the 12th century and offers scenic views of the town from it's highest point. The church bells were peeling for a long time in celebration of the holy day.
Lunch here
Another view of where we had lunch.
We had some lunch at a floating restaurant that is just between where 2 branches of the Rhine RIver converge. Great salad of greens, chicken and smoked salmon. Then a short turn past the University of Leiden and back to the station. Our bus to the gardens was sitting there waiting for us and we were off.
About 15 minutes later we joined a long line of people trying to visit the garden. The bus dropped us off and we went right in. Hard to explain how many tulips are in the place! Suffice it to say it was just spectacular. So many different combinations of colors and flowers in huge swatches of color. Short version - we walked around for about 3 hours - Connie just said "I love those gardens". "Just beautiful". I would have to agree. Rich got a call/text from Gayle's brother Cary was going to be at Keukenhof Gardens so we waited for him to find us. He and his wife Lisa joined us and a few minutes Lisa's sister Sharon as well. Her husband was out shooting some images and never joined us. So, 6 more people have appeared and we have met three of them. Tomorrow, a few more get to Amsterdam and we will meet a bunch more at dinner.
3 beautiful "flowers"
One of millions of tulip gardens. Ok, maybe not a million, but a lot!
More tulips
Leaving the gardens at the end of the day. Amazing!
Connie outside with a "few" orange tulips.
We walked into a near by town Lisse to catch out bus to Haarlem. Not sure exactly why that bus doesn't come right to the Garden. We walked about a mile to the bus stop. About 20 minutes later we exited in downtown Haarlem. Walked a bit more and we had a great Thai dinner. Back to the train station for a 7 minute ride back to Amsterdam. Found the tram and back to the hotel we went.
Connie and I will be up early tomorrow to get in line at the Rijkmuseum when it opens at 9:00. Let's see how crowded it will be early.
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