Friday, April 22, 2011

Holiday in Holland!

On Saturday, B and I took the CityNightLine train to Amsterdam. We booked a sleeping compartment and settled in for a long ride. After arriving in Amsterdam, we took a small train to Haarlem, and then a bus to Noordwijkerhout.

Noordwijkerhout is the heart of bulb country. Even from the bus, we could see huge fields of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and lilies.

It was amazing, and so utterly fabulous that we took about 400 pictures of flowers, with an average of 3.7 million blooms in each photo. Keep reading to see some of them!

We also enjoyed the fantastic Dutch spring weather. It was warm and sunny all the time, so we were able to walk everywhere. On this trip, we walked 54 kilometers. We covered a variety of terrain, including flower fields, dunes, beaches, and polders. B even saw his arch-enemy Ammophila in its native environment!

Before arriving, we weren't sure how many tulips we'd be able to see, so we planned to visit Keukenhof, the biggest bulb flower park in the world. It was beautiful, although packed with tourists. On the other hand, tourists who like tulips are my favorite kind! It was fun to see some of the more exotic flower varieties and specially designed exhibits, though as it turned out, we saw plenty of tulips for free just walking around.

Besides wandering around the Dutch countryside, we made small trips to Den Haag and Haarlem. Both of those cities were really nice, with lots of trees, parks, and attractive canals. We saw many bicyclists--though maybe not as many as here-- and the Dutch people were very friendly and helpful.

In Den Haag, we visited Madurodam, which is basically Holland in miniature. B visited there as a small boy and has never forgotten it, so I said we had to go. It was worth the trip--there were even tiny tulip fields!


E is excited about getting on the train!


Bam! Lots of yellow tulips!

Tulip fields somewhere between de Blink and Noordwijkerhout (I love Dutch!)


Not far from our hostel were these nice fields


B thinks about tulips


Stripes of tulip colors

E in tulips


One thing we didn't expect is how good everything smells!


Sunset added some nice lights to the tulips. It smelled really good here too.


E is inspired


Keukenhof was pretty cool

One of the rarer colors we saw at Keukenhof

Orange is the color of Holland, so I think these must be extra-Dutch


See what I mean?

Some more tulips at Keukenhof


Flower production is serious agricultural business in this region.


Here we are on the beach near our hostel


Holland in miniature! At Madurodam in Den Haag.


Tiny tulips and a tiny tulip tractor

B-zilla!


A very nice springy park in Den Haag


Haarlem

Saturday, April 16, 2011

April Showers...

Sometimes just make us want to leave town.

So we are! We're heading out on a train tonight, arriving in Amsterdam tomorrow morning. From there, we'll dip south to Noordwijk and Keukenhof for a real tulip tour!

We'll be back on Thursday, hopefully with millions of pictures of tulips, or at least pictures of millions of tulips. In the meantime, here's what it looks like here when it's not raining.

Behind Rådhuset, lots of påskeliljer are blooming!

Påskeliljer are daffodils, obviously, but their name means "Easter Lilies."

This week is the Easter Holidays, so some Danes get super-Danish with daffodils, bikes, and flags.


See you on Thursday!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Alliteration Addiction

It seems like I just can't help myself. I always want to have alliterative post titles.

Two Go to Thy
Language Lessons
Daily Dane-ification
Autumn in Aarhus

And of course, the worst offender,
Lucky Linguists and Local Laughs

Basically, if you see that the title is alliterative, even if it says B is the author, it was probably me.

Look at the last one. "More Bang for Your Buck(Wheat!)" It's not too bad, alliteratively, although it is, of course, hilarious. But when you find out that I had actually considered calling it "Blogging 'Bout Buckwheat," you will understand that this is a very serious problem.

Luckily for all of us, puns trump alliteration any day.