Tulips and Bicycles

Those are two very Dutch things: tulips and bicycles.  Combine them together into a one day adventure and you're basically a Dutchie...minus the fact that most Dutch people don't make the trip to see the tulips, but that's besides the point.   That's how I spent my Saturday-- biking through Holland admiring the tulip fields which are in perfect bloom right now-- and it was so much fun.

 We started off by taking the train from Utrecht to Haarlem.  We then biked from Haarlem to Leiden, stopping for lunch in a tulip field near Lisse.  The actual bike route was only about 45km, but add in the trip to and from Zeist, and the extra kilometers we covered while we were temporarily off route (we weren't lost, really, we weren't), and we biked about 80km in total.  Needless to say, my legs were pretty darn tired by the time I got home.

All in all, it was a fantastic day!  The weather was absolutely perfect: not too warm, not too cold, no rain, and not too windy.  We were in good company and good spirits.  I don't have much else to say because simply saying we went and saw some tulip fields doesn't cover it.  Actually, it sounds pretty darn boring when I say it like that, but I assure you, it wasn't.  It was a fantastic day and only pictures can demonstrate. It's a shame I forgot my camera (I'm such a bad photographer), but luckily I have this nifty new smartphone that actually has a decent camera on it.  I managed to get a few nice shots and borrowed a couple pics from Karen to give you all a taste of my flowery day. Enjoy! 

From left to right: Karen, Me, Jorine, Laura. 

This was taken in Leiden.  Apparently there's this "thing" called Wild Knitting and people make stuff to decorate cities.  Basically it's a nicer version of graffiti, and I think it's pretty darn cool.