Tulip Time

Well, we've started our big tour of Europe. First stop The Netherlands, just a quick trip to see the tulips while it's still spring. Hopefully we can make it back to see the rest of the sights. The day before we left, we thought we'd better find a hostel in Amsterdam to stay at before arriving, and just as well we did because everything was booked out! After looking into a few other cities, we found space in The Hague. The views from the plane on our way into Amsterdam were amazing - so flat and so colourful with the crisscross lines of the tulip fields. It was late in the afternoon by the time we arrived in Den Haag, not because the trains are slow, merely because we were misinformed about which platform they left from and by the time we found out, it was a long wait till the next train. After settling in at the hostel, we went out in search of a pancake house only to find the place we were heading for had moved into new premises not yet open. Hunger led us to Burger King instead!

Our mission was to see the tulips so we took a train to Leiden then a bus to Lisse. After a spot of lunch and a wander around the town, we hired bikes and chose a 20km route through the countryside. Having not riden a bike in a long long time, Minnie was a little unsteady at first but quickly got the hang of it. It was a beautifully sunny day and a lovely route. The flowers were amazing and very pretty, not just the famed tulips, but daffodils, jonquils, and hyacinths too (lovely scents!). We had a break at Panorama Tulipland where an artist has almost finished painting a huge mural of the countryside complete with windmills and tulip fields. It was all so gloriously flat. I say, gloriously, because as we discovered on a small bridge, we don't currently have the muscles required for cycling up hills! On arrival back in Den Haag, another search for another pancake house was undertaken, with the same fate as the last: nowhere to be found :-(

We started off Friday with a wander through the city centre and found our way to a huge market where we bought some good Dutch cheese for lunch - a fun foreign-language-speaking experience. Delft was the destination for the afternoon. We wandered around town and visited a Delft china factory, one of only two in the city that still make hand-painted china. It was very interesting to be shown around the factory and to learn how it is made. In Delft, we finally found a pancake restaurant - yay! Admittedly, it was a little on the touristy side, but nice nonetheless. An early night tonight for early the next morning, our flight left for Italy.