Day 12 Resting in Amsterdam, Flowering in Keukenhof

Day 12 Resting in Amsterdam, Flowering in Keukenhof

Today was special – we got to sleep as late as we wanted to this morning, for the first time!!  Some of us even missed breakfast because they slept so late.  I got up about 7 and went to the lounge to get online and upload photos.  People around me were online but I got thrown off after a few minutes and could not figure out what was wrong.  Sue figured out that I had maxed out my megabytes on my first password.  So, I got another one and got busy again.  I got photos from several days loaded onto the blog and then decided that I should go off the ship and look for a ‘brown café’.  I chose 43 photos to load on the blog and left the ship.  I walked quite a ways but soon realized that all the area surrounding our ship’s location is fairly new and therefore will not contain any old cafes.  The wind was so strong, it almost blew my longest scarf off my neck.  I returned to the ship and found that the photos were still loading.  Since it was lunch time, I took my computer to the restaurant and kept them going until they were done.  I did not have time to put captions, but maybe I’ll have a chance later.

Soon after lunch, we loaded the buses for the trip to Keukenhof.  We saw lots of cars, buses and bicycles going our direction and found out that many of them were going to the same place we were. As we neared the park (which was once the kitchen garden of a palace) we started seeing fields of blooming flowers – mainly tulips but also daffodils and hyacinths.  We even saw machinery that was chopping off the flowers so that the bulbs would develop more strongly. The parking lots were full and so was the park, but it never seems tooooooo crowded. 

Daniel had given us maps and explained the best places to go so we took off as soon as we arrived.  There were about 7 million bulbs planted this year and I believe it – the flowers were beautifully arranged in the flower beds and it was all just well done.  Words just can’t do the beauty justice so I won’t really try.  Look it up on the internet and I hope to load some of the hundreds of photos that we took today. My favorite part of the garden was the orchid house, but I expect the others had different favorites. Actually this garden is really created every year for the buyers of masses flowers so the sellers can showcase the quality of their flowers.  They opened it up to the public in 1988 and about a million people a year visit this park during the 9 weeks a year that it is open.  If you ever get a chance, go see it.  By the way, the weather was perfect – sunny and cool until you had stood too long in the sun.

We got back to the ship about dinner time and only had a few minutes to rest before dinner.  It was painful to stretch out and even more painful to stand up again.  Barbara’s pedometer registered 2 ½ miles today so I expect that’s about what we walked.  Seemed a lot farther to me!!!

Dinner was very good, even though Sarah Mc threw chicken at me.  Actually, she tried to give it to me and I tried to refuse it and it ended up in my lap.  It was an interesting transaction.  We had lentils and chicken, then soup, then butterfish, turkey or chicken breast for the main course, and then Dutch stuffed pancakes, fondue or ice cream for dessert.

After dinner, Sue and I went to the lounge to work on photos and the blog and there was a Dutch night for entertainment.  The program directors told us the history of Queen’s Day and then we played games.  The first game was musical chairs and you probably shouldn’t do that with elderly people.  The last two people in the game both fell down when the music stopped and we were afraid they were injured but they seemed to be okay after they were helped up.  They may be sore tomorrow though.  This game was declared a tie.  The next game had three contestants who had to eat a gingerbread cookie hanging from a string without using hands to assist them. It was fun to watch and the winner was the lady whose cookie did not fall to the ground.  The last game involved getting something hanging from the back of your waist into a bottle that was placed behind you.  This game was hilarious to watch and one man won it quickly.  The program directors also gave us different candies from Holland to sample.  It was a nice hour.

I’m about finished writing the blog and uploading photos and there are still many people here in the lounge listening to Keith playing the piano and singing.  Actually, they are mostly talking quite loudly but I think some are listening.

The plan for tomorrow is to go to Hoorn tonight and then take a bus in the morning to get on a smaller boat and view a vegetable auction that is conducted on boats. I think we will also tour the ‘Land of a Thousand Islands’ and then later go on a walking city tour of Hoorn, or at least some of us will.  During the day (Saturday) we will also have a meeting that will explain the process for leaving the ship on Monday morning.  We will be gone from the ship sometime early in the morning evidently because they next group of GCT travelers will be having lunch on the ship to begin their tours. 

I hate to leave but then again, I’m awfully tired and will enjoy getting home again.