bikes and tulips April 12, 2015
Bucket List
Riding bikes in Holland - check!
Seeing tulips in Holland - check!
I don't really have much of a bucket list. I pretty much take life as it comes. But, for quite a long time, I have wanted to see tulips and ride bikes in Holland. Both have happened this week.
Bruce and I are staying in Utrecht for nearly a week. It's a beautiful old city - where our nephew, Tomek, happens to be living right now. We'll see him tomorrow. In the meantime, we've been busy getting that bucket list attended to!
This is our first visit to Holland, and we are loving it! It feels fresh and pretty and healthy and on a human scale. The first evening, after a very long bus ride from Nancy, France, the taxi left us off next to a canal, not far from our BnB in the central section of the city. Old brick homes lined the canal. No cars passing. It was sooo quiet - just the sound of bicycles whooshing past on the brick streets, perhaps a bit of slight clattering from them, since they were all old, too. Birds twittered; frothy, pink cherry trees and daffies brightened the sides of the canal. The evening light glanced off the water. It felt peaceful and magical!
We had been told, before we arrived, that Holland is a country that loves its bikes. We couldn't have imagined the truth behind those words. Bicycle riders are treated equally to auto drivers, with bike lanes and massive bicycle parking lots everywhere. Equality is a core value here in the Netherlands (as are practicality and frugality: we fit right in :). While people of all ages ride, the young bikers zoom around fast, some with one hand on the handle bar while the other holds a cell phone or an ice cream cone or an umbrella! I saw one fellow riding while texting a message. Mothers routinely ride with babies in seats, front and back. Some have big wooden boxes on the front of their bikes to hold half grown kids or groceries. It's wonderful!
One day we borrowed our hosts' "city" bikes - as opposed to "country" bikes - and made our maiden ride, through Utrecht and out onto some off-road trails beside canals in the suburbs. It was lovely to join the hordes of folks who ride bikes - and because there are special lanes for the bikers, it wasn't too scary to be in traffic. Quickly we left the bustle behind and were out in the countryside, rolling along on a sunny day on flat ground amidst beautiful scenery. Heavenly! Here are some photos of our biking excursion.
Here I am, on a bicycle in Holland, at last.
Houseboats lined a section of one canal, as we headed out of town. They looked like weekend places.
Not far outside of Utrecht was this medieval castle, surrounded by water, of course.
An antique and no longer used - but so picturesque!
As we returned to town, we came upon this green/yellow space between two streets.
I loved this Muslim woman - on her bike with her toddler son in the back - and her black covering blowing in the wind. I couldn't catch up close enough to get a good shot. BTW, that whole lane that she's riding in is for bikes.
With sun predicted for the day after our bike outing, we pressed forward on this bucket list thing and caught a train to the world renowned Keukenhof Gardens, just north of Leiden. We have never seen anything like it! Called the Garden of Europe, its nearly 80 acres of spring flowers are magnificent. Having tulips on my mind, I was at first a bit disappointed to see bed after bed of those posies not quite in bloom yet. Not to worry. Further along, we saw all the tulips one could ever imagine - every color, variety, displayed in curvy beds, straight beds, single color, mixed colors, indoors and out. Hyacinths and daffodils and other spring flowers, too. Wow. Pictures describe them in a way that I can't.
If you ever have a chance to visit Holland and the Keukenhof Gardens in the spring, GO!
Riding bikes in Holland - check!
Seeing tulips in Holland - check!
I don't really have much of a bucket list. I pretty much take life as it comes. But, for quite a long time, I have wanted to see tulips and ride bikes in Holland. Both have happened this week.
Bruce and I are staying in Utrecht for nearly a week. It's a beautiful old city - where our nephew, Tomek, happens to be living right now. We'll see him tomorrow. In the meantime, we've been busy getting that bucket list attended to!
This is our first visit to Holland, and we are loving it! It feels fresh and pretty and healthy and on a human scale. The first evening, after a very long bus ride from Nancy, France, the taxi left us off next to a canal, not far from our BnB in the central section of the city. Old brick homes lined the canal. No cars passing. It was sooo quiet - just the sound of bicycles whooshing past on the brick streets, perhaps a bit of slight clattering from them, since they were all old, too. Birds twittered; frothy, pink cherry trees and daffies brightened the sides of the canal. The evening light glanced off the water. It felt peaceful and magical!
We had been told, before we arrived, that Holland is a country that loves its bikes. We couldn't have imagined the truth behind those words. Bicycle riders are treated equally to auto drivers, with bike lanes and massive bicycle parking lots everywhere. Equality is a core value here in the Netherlands (as are practicality and frugality: we fit right in :). While people of all ages ride, the young bikers zoom around fast, some with one hand on the handle bar while the other holds a cell phone or an ice cream cone or an umbrella! I saw one fellow riding while texting a message. Mothers routinely ride with babies in seats, front and back. Some have big wooden boxes on the front of their bikes to hold half grown kids or groceries. It's wonderful!
One day we borrowed our hosts' "city" bikes - as opposed to "country" bikes - and made our maiden ride, through Utrecht and out onto some off-road trails beside canals in the suburbs. It was lovely to join the hordes of folks who ride bikes - and because there are special lanes for the bikers, it wasn't too scary to be in traffic. Quickly we left the bustle behind and were out in the countryside, rolling along on a sunny day on flat ground amidst beautiful scenery. Heavenly! Here are some photos of our biking excursion.
With sun predicted for the day after our bike outing, we pressed forward on this bucket list thing and caught a train to the world renowned Keukenhof Gardens, just north of Leiden. We have never seen anything like it! Called the Garden of Europe, its nearly 80 acres of spring flowers are magnificent. Having tulips on my mind, I was at first a bit disappointed to see bed after bed of those posies not quite in bloom yet. Not to worry. Further along, we saw all the tulips one could ever imagine - every color, variety, displayed in curvy beds, straight beds, single color, mixed colors, indoors and out. Hyacinths and daffodils and other spring flowers, too. Wow. Pictures describe them in a way that I can't.
If you ever have a chance to visit Holland and the Keukenhof Gardens in the spring, GO!
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