Today we left put hotel very early to catch a bus to the airport to connect with our bus to Keukenhof – the world famous tulip gardens.

Since doing a project in about Std 3 about Holland, I always dreamt about seeing the tulips of Amsterdam.  Well, today my dream has come true.  

We arrived at Keukenhof at about 8am. It was bitterly cold, and off we went into the gardens.

7,000,000 bulbs are planted by hand every year.

The gardens are everything we had seen in pictures and more!

We walked and walked and walked. Around every corner there were more flowers, more colours and more varieties. The flowers are not all tulips – there are some daffodils, some hyacinths, and a few others, but mainly tulips.

In the early morning we walked for ages without seeing anyone. Absolute bliss!  As the day wore on, the crowds got more and more and more!

During the morning it poured so we put our plastic poncho jackets over us and continued walking.  Nothing was going to deter us!

We took a short boat ride, in the rain, through the canals to see the tulip fields which are nearing the end of the season due to the bad weather.

Our apologies for so many pictures,  but it was too beautiful not to share!

We caught our bus back to Amsterdam and then the trams back to the hotel, where we tried to thaw out a bit.

When we left again, we went armed with beanies and gloves. Our next visit was to the Heineken Brewery for a tour.  Clearly this was high up on William’s list, but it was very interesting.  We were given 4 tokens for beers after the tour, and we had tasters during the tour, which I tried!  So proud of myself as I am not a beer drinker!  I thought that if William drank all 4 beers he was going to spend the night going to the loo, but he decided after 1 beer to give the other 3 tokens to some youngsters, who were very grateful!

Did you know that a Heineken beer is 95% water, so I suppose it is very healthy!

We had some supper, and set off looking for the red light district. You cannot visit Amsterdam without going to the red light district! Well, it was everything we had heard and read about!

As with all things like this, it is very sad that this is what some people have had to/chosen to do.

The red light district and Old Amsterdam were buzzing tonight, even though it was raining and freezing! Very entertaining!

We then caught our trams (very, very full) and headed back. Tired and cold! The photo on the right is Amsterdam Central Station.

But what a wonderful day we had.

Often when you have wanted to do something for so long, when it actually happens it is a letdown. Well this, I can assure you was not!