Tulip Tour

Hello from Groningen, in the North of The Netherlands! I'm not quite sure what possessed me to include Groningen in my trip, or at least why I would travel to Groningen from Texel without at least putting in a night somewhere else in between. I arrived at my hotel here tonight at 5:45pm, after 5 and a half hours of travelling (bus, ferry, bus, train, another train, and yet another train, it sounded so easy and quick in the Lonely Planet Guide), and I plan on leaving early tomorrow morning in order to get to Arnhem and spend most of the day at Hoge Vellue National Park (not sure if that is the correct name for it, pretty sure that the Hoge is right, not conviced about the Vellue, but if you're really interested you can look it up on a map of the Netherlands, and in any case I'll correct myself in the next blog entry), and being as I found this internet cafe pretty much as soon as I arrived, I really won't be seeing too much of the town in the light.

So, for those of you who haven't been talking to Mum, Dad or Nicky, I made it to my tulip tour! I was very excited when I asked a man who looked to be in charge of a barge which had a lot of bikes on it if I was in the right place. He showed me a list he had and I pointed out my name on it, so he showed me my room on the boat and explained that once everyone was on board at 1pm, we would start the engines and have tea and coffee and be on our way. He was our skipper, Ad. Our tour guide's name was Marcel, and he was a tall, bald man from the Netherlands (he said he lives in Maastricht and offered me a place to stay when I visit there if I need it- I've already booked a hostel). He had one normal blue eye, and one white eye in which the blue iris was faintly visible, and I kept trying to work out if he could see with it or not, and if it was a corneal defect, something he was born with or something he acquired (I think it is the vet in me), but of course, I didn't ASK these questions, that is something you just don't do - not even at the pub after a few cherry beers.

So, we left at about 1:45 pm. We had to wait for Jimmy, a man from the UK who's flight had been delayed about 3 hours. Marcel actually rode to the train station to meet him and took an extra bike with him to speed things up a bit- that is one way to avoid having to find the barge on your own!

Our first stop was at Spaarndam, the home of Hans Brinker- the little boy with his hand in the dike that saved all of the Netherlands from flooding. In case you didn't already know, this little boy never existed. He was made up. By an American woman. But he has become the symbol for all dike workers in the Netherlands. We visited his statue, then rode a few kilometers to Haarlem. We nearly had our first casualty on the way- David, a man from the UK, nearly crashed into another rider coming from the opposite direction. Marcel had told us on our debriefing that noone wears helmets here in the Netherlands, and not to do it, just be careful, so there were only one or two of us in the group (those of us who value our brains quite highly, and maybe a few of us who are aware of our slight uncoordination on a bike) who were wearing our helmets that we were told to bring with us by our booking group. There were a few more the next day who decided to wear their helmets (including David).

After dinner the first night (our cooks name was Marieke, and she made the most delicious dishes every night), we went on a walking tour of Haarlem. It was liberation day, so a lot of people in the streets partying. The good news is, although I didn't get to see the Red Light District in Amsterdam, I did get to walk through The Red Light District of Haarlem (sorry Kim, my pure mind has now been corrupted). The Red Light District is much much much smaller than that of Amsterdam, and much more controlled. We did see one girl sitting in a brothel window in a short skirt and push-up bra who waved and smiled at us as we passed (we also passed several very young looking boys who were standing out the front watching and calling to her). After the walking tour, we had a drink in one of the local pubs. I had a St Louise Cherry Beer, and I have to say it was great! Much nicer than regular beer.

The second day of the tour we rode to Keukenhof Gardens, where we saw tulips, tulips and more tulips! As well as a variety of other bulbs and flowers. It was a very beautiful, and HUGE garden. We spent 2 and a half hours there and still didn't see every inch of the park. After lunch, we cycled past some fields. Alas, as it has been an early spring here in most of Europe, most of the bulbs have already bloomed and died. We only saw 2 fields and they were not as spectacular as I was hoping. Oh well, maybe I will just have to come back next year for another look. The fields that we did see were still very pretty though.

On the third day of the tour we visited a working windmill and a cheese farm (that makes Gouda Cheese). It was pouring with rain on this day though, so Marcel modified our tour a little so there was not so much bike riding (and a few of us made good use of the modification to spend an hour or two in a Pancake House in Leiden eating).

On the last day, we got up bright and early and visited the Flower Auction at Aalsmeer. This is a huge building full of rows and rows of trolleys which are full of flowers of many varied colours and varieties. The flowers here are auctioned to all over the world, and the prices set the prices for flowers around the rest of the world. Here, something highly amusing happened (at least to me it was highly amusing, to the girl in question, I think it was a little frustrating).

There was a group of 4 Canadian women on our tour, 2 of which work for the Canadian Embassy in the UK, 2 of which work for the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the women who works in the UK, Shannon, decided that, instead of waiting for the rest of the group outside the auction, so that we could all ride together to the barge, in time for breakfast and to pack our bags before sailing back to Amsterdam as planned, she would ride ahead of us to the barge so that she could have a shower before breakfast. Unfortunately, she didn't tell Marcel what she was doing. If she had, she would have discovered that the boat was actually in a different place, in the opposite direction to that which it had been when we left it that morning. Unfortunately for her, by the time she discovered that the boat was no longer where we left it, the rest of us were nearly at the boat, and unable to wait for her, as the boat was on a tight schedule to pass through certain bridges and locks at certain times. Marcel tried to organise for her to hitch a ride with another tour group which was half an hour behind us, but for some reason or another, she missed this group as well. It was quite comical to hear her voice screaming down the line of the phone to Marcel. She ended up hitching a lift with a nice business man and his wife who were headed back to Amsterdam also. I found the whole thing quite funny, although I did feel a little sorry for her when we did eventually meet up with her at the dock in Amsterdam, I think if it had been me, I would have been in tears. But then again, why not just wait for the rest of the group?

The tour was great. They were a great bunch of people, and I hope to keep in contact with at least a few of them. We were a mixture of Americans, Brits, Canadians and one Aussie (me).

After the tour, I had lunch in Amsterdam with Janene (my barge room mate), Josh, Jessamyn and Jimmy (people from the tour) before heading to Alkmaar where I spent the night. Yesterday morning, I got up reasonably early in order to catch the train to Den Helder, then the ferry to Texel (one of the Wadden Islands). I think I saw more fields of flowers on my train ride to Den Helder than what I saw on the Tulip Tour! It made me think that it must be so exciting if you rode the train to work everyday, to see the first bulbs of spring in the fields and knowing that winter was over.

I then caught a bus to De Koog, a town near the centre of the island where I was staying the night. I dropped my bags off in my hotel room (the nicest one I've stayed in since being in the Netherlands) and then bought some flemish fries for lunch. This was my first taste of flemish fries and I can't say that I can see what the fuss is all about. They are just chips with Mayonaise. After lunch, I hired a bike and rode to Eco Mare, an environmental museum and sanctuary for sick and injured birds and seals. I had a little look around and watched the seals being fed, before going for a ride around the dunes. I soon gave that up as a bad idea. Trust me to find the only hilly area in The Netherlands and think it might be a nice area to ride a bike. And a heavy, 3 gear bike at that! I think perhaps I should have brought my mountain bike along with me after all. I took a little detour and went for a ride around De Dennen (a national park/forest) instead. Much flatter. And that pretty much brings me to this morning, I think.

Thanks everyone for your comments and emails. I really enjoy hearing what you're all doing back home.

I think I can see a USB port on this computer, so I am going to see if I can download some photos for you to make this blogsite a little more interesting and colourful. Wish me luck...

Luv,
Lis x.