Friday, June 15, 2018

Day 9 - Around Keukenhof

sometimes people will treat you like a worn out shoe
but they don't know that you can't lose
come and be a winner
Come And Be A Winner - Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

Somehow I started writing about this trip with day 0, so this last post about the trip will be day 9 or day 10 if you're counting from 1. It was my last day, I was flying back to Singapore that day. Took the bus again to Seville airport, luckily I didn't have to wait too long and get all worried that I would be late. It wasn't a long trip to the airport. I was transiting in Amsterdam and I know last year I wrote about not gonna chase visiting Keukenhof again, but I went there again. I had something that I wanted to do. I wanted to cycle around and look at the tulip fields.

Flying to Schiphol was uneventful. Good lord I can't remember if I was sitting at the aisle or the window and whom I sat with. I remember there were 3 rich Indonesian ladies on the flight though. They wore expensive things and when checking in had big luggages. I didn't say "Hi" to them because I think I'm too lowly for the rich them. Anyways, when I exited Schiphol I saw this cafe / restaurant that sells Indonesian food but the Dutch version of it. I was so curious and wondered if I should eat because I did feel a bit hungry. I looked at the food and in the end I wasn't feeling it. It didn't look correct to me. Even from the rice, it seemed wrong that it's basmati rice. What, they cannot find any South East Asian rice? No Thai rice? If there's anything that I was really interested in, it was the pork sate / satay. In the end I was thinking no because wrong Indonesian food will just make me sad. Then I went to a convenient store to get water and they happened to sell pastry too. The first time I landed in Amsterdam years ago, I was so delighted that the Dutch just speaks English well and in that store being able to ask what's in the pastry and having the staff in the counter said "Have a good day", I was just reminded of that feeling of being happy that they all speak English :) The pastry I had just had cheese inside it. It was pretty good and I ate it while walking all the way to arrival 4 which was quite a walk. It was where the bus to Keukenhof is. Previously I always booked tickets online which include admission to the garden and a round trip on the bus. However, this time I hadn't booked any ticket. I have to say I had some apprehension if I should really cycle around because as usual I worry about my ability to not get hurt or hurt other people in the process. In the end I decided to toughen it up and really cycle around. So I just bought the bus tickets from the stall near the queue for the bus. There was quite a queue, but not to worry, bus to Keukenhof departs frequently.

Arriving in the park, I found the free lockers section and I stored all my valuable inside. Next to it, they have bigger space with staff and I saw some people used it to store luggages and other big things. Then I made my way to the bicycle rental. There wasn't much of a queue, but there's only 1 staff at the counter and she had to explained the route to each customer, so it was quite a wait. The bicycle rental cost 10 euro for the whole day. The OCD studious me had studied the route and I had expectation of making it up to the sea - too high of an expectation unmatched by my physical ability and navigation skill. Anyway after paying, I went to get the bicycle. First thing I said to the guy was that I'm short and needed something low. The handsome and I think very young guy gave me their standard orange bike thinking I'd be alright. I tried and nope, I couldn't pull myself up. I blame the wind but it could also be that it's indeed too high for me or it could also be that I plainly sucked. He got me another bike, a black one, and that worked for me though my feet still couldn't touch the ground when I sat. I thought okay let's just get out of here to avoid more embarrassment. I was already embarrassed with my unskillfulness. I wonder if he thought this girl was not going to make it. He taught me how to lock the bike and off I went.

The route was marked but sometimes the signs were kinda small that I had times where I wondered if I missed any signs. All the bicycle paths are dedicated. I cycled and cycled and before long I was thinking, man this is harder than I thought it would be. Seriously I thought, why is this harder, harder than when I went cycling with dad in Taiwan last year. At first there were people renting the same bicycles with me and I tried to follow them, but at some points I think we diverged and I found myself alone. Worried I was, but I thought I was in the right path. The disappointing thing was that there's no tulip field :( I saw ponies on what looked like just a normal house garden but no tulip field.

I was getting disappointed and started to wonder if I was in the wrong path. I think I was right though, but there's just nothing. Eventually I found a small field with tulips of the same colours and stopped awhile and took pictures of them. I had to admit that I was hesitant about just parking and walk around, I was afraid that the owner would get angry and chase me away. However there's no one there. That being said I did haste a bit in taking the pictures. The tulips here are in bright colours and the strong wind kinda made them all bend. I love how the colours come out in this picture. Didn't have to do any editing at all.

It was kinda sad not finding more tulip fields :( I was earlier on visiting Keukenhof than last year, but even on the 1st of May, many of the tulips were already gone from the fields. Eventually I saw a bigger field with tulips of many colours. I saw that there were some bikes from the bicycle rentals and there were quite a number of people walking on the fields, so I felt better about doing the same. There was a freaking drone though when I was there and the buzzing sound annoyed me. I wonder if the drone was just taking footages or it was really there to buzz and annoy people and stop them from walking too deep. In the end luckily it went away. Here's some pictures from the fields. There's a canal by this field and across the canal, there's a field of what I think is daffodils. As for the tulips, I particularly like the section where it seemed that they're still quite early in their bloom that their petals are still small and together. Against the many green of their stalk, it just looked pretty to me.

After that I cycled again. Couldn't find anymore field and before I knew it I was back at Keukenhof. Took a bit of a detour before returning the bicycle to take some pictures of a small tulip field nearby, but this was gated so I couldn't walk in.

After that I returned the bicycle. So in the end, I didn't make it to the sea. I wonder if it's really far. All in all, I think I spent around 3 hours cycling. Before I got on the bus to leave I took some pictures at the flower beds in front of Keukenhof's entrance. The tulips were in many different colours and they looked so pretty being different. For pictures from this trip, please go here. Dare I say that I will not chase Keukenhof again? I don't know, if the time is right and I have a substantial transit time in Schiphol, what you're gonna do, better spend it looking at beautiful flowers right?

The flight home was full so I was sad finding out I couldn't get a row for my own, but I made it back in one piece and for that I'm thankful. I had a really really really good trip and I am thankful to God. It never ceases to amaze me that I managed to do another trip unscathed. I do have very little confidence on myself and so I attribute God for everything and that all went well. Life back here straight away pulls me back down the black hole :( I had a health check quite immediate after I came back - that's the only appointment date I could get. Surprisingly I'm okay. No diabetes, something that I'm worried about. However my blood pressure at that time fell into pre-hypertension. My excuse for that was that I was getting anxious because it was taking too long, I was getting hungry, and I was getting late for class. I'm supposed to go to a doctor to really get it checked, but I haven't done so. I think I'm really just not good with stress, really don't. The thing is I have stress in life, too much than I would like to have and suffice to say these get me all moody and sad. I can't even be fully excited and happy about this long weekend *sigh* I do hope you guys are having better days.

:) eKa @ 12:02:00 PM •