Glingle's blog

This is a group of pictures taken at the Beatrix pavilion, Keukenhof Gardens.

And  more.
And one more.

We went to the  Keukenhof Gardens Via train to Schiphol and then a half hour or so
bus ride.  It had been a littledrizzly and we were worried that it would be raining, but we
got off the bus to clear blue skies.  Went to the cafe by the entrance for Pofferjies
(little puffy pancakes covered with sugar) which ticked off another thing in the list of food
to eat while in the Netherlands.  Thus fortified we started walking.  The gardens cover 70
acres with lots of pathways and formal beds planted with bulbs supplied by various bulb
companies.  There are also pavilions named after members of the Dutch Royal family
which have exhibitions of different types of flower and shops which sell bulbs.

The Nature Garden was a criss cross of walkways over a stream with a pebble beds and
a small waterfall.

Then we walked a bit more past solid plantings

We were there early in the season and it's been a cold spring so a lot of the plants were not
fully up.  The planting below will be blue instead of green and look like a stream flowing
through the yellow.

Then we hit the Beatrix pavilion where the orchids were on show. 
I'll do another post of just orchids later.

More walking along more plantings and there were places to sit and contemplate  

Then...TAdaaaaaaaa

I was so happy, I snickered to myself for a good half an hour.
This was one of the neat little seating areas, very zen

Starting to fade a little we headed for the Willem Alexander pavilion and BULBS
Again, I'll do individual shots in another post, this is just to give an idea of the size --
it was Enormous.

Completely flowered out at this point, we went for a drink and map consultation
and decided to skip the Oranje Nassau pavilion.

We headed towards the Historic Gardens

And then headed for the exit.  There is a permanent art exhibition with sculptures
dotted all over the grounds and this one we really liked.

On the way out was this rather funky water feature

And this

It was a lovely old fashioned barrel organ which was playing an oompah
version of the Scissor Sisters "I don't feel like dancin". 

As a present to ourselves, Mina and I went to Amsterdam at the end of March.
Weatherwise it wasn't such a good thing as it was still quite cold and damp, but
as we were inside for large chunks of the time it wasn't too bad.
We arrived on Sunday night, after going through the security theatre that even
provincial airports (Exeter) feel the need to play to reassure people they're not going to
be blown up.  The plane itself was a tin can with tiny seats and no air, which reminded me of
why I don't travel much anymore.
 
Arriving at  Schiphol was a pleasant entry into the sane normality the Dutch do so well.
We booked our tickets for the Keukenhof, bought the I-Amsterdam card
(combined entry into museums and travelcard) and return train tickets to the airport and
hoicked off to Centraal station.  Got a taxi to our hotel, Hotel de Lantaerne
dropped off our bags and boosted out for something to eat.  This is when it all started to go horribly wrong.
I'd researched places to eat within distance of our hotel, but we took a wrong turn out and missed
the junction.  By the time we had gone round in a circle and found the main drag we were homicidal
with hunger.  Fortunately the BOJO  restaurant had rapid service and we were given large portions of
noodles, meat and sauce. 

Sated, knackered and ready to fall over, we headed back to the hotel. Or so we thought.
In daylight, the route is nice and clear, in the evening with all of the streetlights
having light saving bulbs in which made everything really dim and maps completely unreadable
we got lost.  About two hours later, we found our hotel and realised why the guidebook had made
no sense.

See the pretty bridge, see the way the bridge doesn't go across to the hotel, see the hotel in a
dead end.  We didn't.  In broad daylight, it's nice and clear --  at night, not so much.  To get to the
hotel from Leidsestraat you have to cross a bridge, walk along on the other side of the canal from
your hotel and then cross another bridge back over to get to it.  This was not that clear on the map.
After that, we didn't get lost at all :)
the big blue and orange houseboat is an extension of the police station

Monday we went to the  Rijksmuseum .  They've closed most of it for renovations and just have an
exhibition about the foundation, history and artistic glories of The Netherlands.  The curator of the
exhibition seemed to have a very dry sense of humour, some of the cards next to items were very
interestingly phrased.  I've been to the Rijksmuseum before and found that the closure of most of it
was a good thing as it's impossible to do the whole building without totally overloading your senses. 
This was a good way of seeing the high points without mentally melting down.  Seeing history from
another perspective was also interesting as the UK and NE have warred and traded together for
over 400 years.

After that overdose of Culture, we went for a  Canalboat Tour .  The recorded tourguide covered the
history of the canals and Amsterdam whilst travelling along a lot of water, and going right outside the
outer ring into the mouth of the Amstel past Centraal station and back into the city again.
It was an amazingly touristy thing to do, but it gave a completely different perspective to the city.

In the evening, we hooked up with friends ( Regina, Harm and Mark) and went to a tapas restaurant
 Brasserie "De Kelderhof"

where we managed to work our way through most of the menu.  It had a very funky ladies room with
cloth hand towels which you threw into a basket when done.  Afterwards we went to the Cafe Americain
in the American Hotel for hot chocolate with piles of whipped cream.  

Tuesday We started by walking to the Bloemarkt   which was an overload of flowers and bulbs. 
By the time we'd walked halfway down we were overwhelmed with choice and finally just bought
a couple of bulbs.

We went to the Hermitage  satellite which had an exhibition of Art Nouveau under the last Tsars
which was fab.  Glass, worked crystal and really amazing woodworking. It had a lot of Daum and
Galle and some examples of work by Tiffany, Lalique and Fabergé.
The parrot is the ancestor of every flying duck in interior decor.
After that, we went to a chinese  Nam Tin  for Dim Sum.  They were fine, but the service was appalling.
We figured that they feel that they'll never see us again so who cares, which was fine ten years ago
but is a bit of a mistake in the internet age as I'll be mentioning it in my review on Virtual Tourist which should have
a knock on effect as others are mentioning the same thing.  After that we walked up to the Westermarkt and then walked back to our hotel.

Completely whipped, we ate at the tapas place again and then went to bed early.

Wednesday we went to the Keukenhof.  it was drizzly when we left and I was a little twitchy that it
would be raining when we got there.  Nope.  The sun shone, we had pofferjies at one of the cafes and then
we walked, took photos and went ooooh a lot.  The next post will cover what we saw.

Flowered out, we went back to Amsterdam, found the Pancake Bakery and had pancakes. 
Stopped off to see Regina, walked back along the Prinsengracht, took some photos and then went
back to the hotel to pack.

Thursday am we dropped our cases at the left luggage at Centraal and then went for another walk
along the canals.  We stopped in at the Tulip Museum and bought a couple of Amaryllis bulbs, had another hot chocolate, and then walked some more.  We had to have covered about seven miles a day, but it was so easy because its so wonderfully flat--especially compare to Torquay, the town of seven hills :)

Then we went to Schiphol, sane security procedures except that I had my brand new water bottle confiscated because it wasn't in a sealed bag, but at least we didn't have to take off our shoes, jacket and empty our pockets.  Arrived back home, totally knackered and promptly went down with a virus which we probably caught on the plane.  I started feeling sniffly on the friday and by Saturday was in bed with a temperature and Mina going haa, this is what happens when you don't take vitamins.  Two days later, she went down with it too.  We've spent the last two weeks feeling like crap which is why this post is delayed.  But we're better now.
 

Ah Easter Sunday.  A day when the bunny brings eggs: ).  It's another co-option of a pagan tradition by the Christian church, but fine by me.
Easter tradition

Well it finally stopped raining and we had a chance to go out into the garden, harvest the peas and beans and cut back the ever encroaching convulus. 

The lettuces were starting to get water logged so I did a big harvest, and handed them out.  Next door came over to cut back his trees which were overhanging the fence so we gave him a big colander full and then the tenants came home so we gave them a bagful each, which hasn't really made a dent in the grown ones.   I planted lollo rosso in the small bed and filled in where I'd taken stuff out.  The greenhouse is still full -- I have another thirty or so little gem, fifteen Mikola and about twenty mixed lettuce ready to go out in about a week--aaargh. 

Mina has been taking a class in French polishing.  I am now the happy beneficiary of a bedside table and chair.
The chair, we picked up at a car boot sale as just the frame and then Mina polished and reupholstered it.

The table used to belong to my grandmother who used it as a potting table. Mina took all the edging veneer off, stripped it down and then layered shellac and oil, polished, sanded and then did it again.  We had to wait three weeks before we could put the glass on top, to let it settle and harden. 

The first ripe raspberries, two dwarf tomatoes and a blackberry.  The tomatoes, courgettes and cucumbers have set, the next batch of lettuce is ready to go in and the parsley has doubled in size. We have ribs marinating, the house has been cleaned, we have nowhere to be this weekend.  All this and it's not due to rain until Sunday evening.  Life is good. 

A random poppy just came up in the front garden.  No idea where it came from, but I'm going to wait for it to set seed and hope that next year it comes up.