Amsterdam, Netherlands: Van Gogh and Keukenhof

Hello!

On Sunday 4/21, mom and I flew from Lisbon to Amsterdam to continue our trip. Dad flew back to Denver and brought most of the stuff I had from the semester with him. As we approached the airport, we could see the fields of tulips from the air!

We took a taxi to our hotel (happened to be a Tesla... we later learned that Ubers are much cheaper!) and passed by the museum district on our way. We stayed at the Hotel JL No. 76 right next to the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum. The receptionist pointed us to some of the hot spots around town and explained how to get to the tulip festival.

Our first stop once we got moving was lunch at the Small Talk B.V. - we got Dutch pancakes (like a crepe) and omelettes. From there, we walked over to the Van Gogh Museum! It's a fantastic collection of paintings displayed in a chronological order. I felt like it gave a great impression of the life Van Gogh lived and explained his relationship with his family, especially with his later years spent in Arles, France. We loved Sunflowers, The Bedroom, Wheatfield with Crows, and the Hockney exhibit. Irises was unfortunately not on display this time!

After that, we walked over to the underground supermarket (AH Van Baerlestraat) to pick up some snacks and drinks for the room. We had lots of fun trying to identify items throughout the store, specifically the laundry detergent! We stayed in for the night, relaxing and snacking instead of going to dinner.

The next morning, we got up early for breakfast and caught an Uber to Keukenhof! Every year between March and May the Keukenhof gardens open up for the annual tulip festival. According to this article, "more than 7 million flower bulbs are planted in autumn to bloom in spring" with more than 800 different tulips! This year's theme was Flower Power and had brightly-colored displays. The experience was improved by the statues, windmills, ceramic cows, gift shopping, and large tulip fields. Separately, we also enjoyed the petting zoo with its cute bunnies and goats! We stopped a couple times to pick up snacks and strudels at the shops within the gardens.

Some flower pictures! Everywhere you looked it was colorful and beautiful :)

Petting Zoo and a Snack!

Cows and clogs!

More to come soon about the rest of our adventures in Amsterdam!

-A

Comments

Popular Posts