Totes emoji*, I’m so excited for today :
If you read a news article about the unexplained deaths of two OAP British tourists, found naked in a Dutch AirBnB, that might well be because one of us has fallen onto the other from the top of the ladder in our AirBnB!! 🤣
Seriously, the stairs up to our bedroom should be condemned and, most importantly, there’s absolutely no chance of me getting a cup of tea in bed while we’re here! After my rantings yesterday about the stairs, Jezza’s actually come around to my way of thinking- probably due to his morning waitressing duties 😂😂.
Jezza did actually make it upstairs with a cup of tea for me this morning, then he had another trip down/up with a cup of coffee for himself and then a further trip with his laptop 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ – it reminds us of 10 years ago when we were starting the renovations on rue de la Bastille, but at least we had a palan (electric hoist) to move things up and down!!!
You will all know of my complaints about Jezza’s snoring over the years and he did tell me yesterday in Brussels that I had been snoring – I was a bit sceptical of this and told him he should’ve recorded it – as I have done several times over the years with him…. I woke up this morning to a WhatsApp voice message from Jezza – no prizes for guessing what it was 😴😴😴😴🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️. I’m sure it’s because of the heating in our accommodation and lack of ventilation…
We needed to be at the bus stop down the road by 9am to get to our connection for the 👄👄, so we showered and dressed downstairs, on account of not wishing to risk life and limb by bringing our cases up the stairs – anyway, the bathroom is downstairs 🙄🙄.
The sun was shining for the first time on our trip and the temperature was rising (a bit), so I was very happy!! 😎
We caught the bus, then the Metro to get to the coach taking us to Keukenhof – there was such a long queue but they were asking for people who didn’t mind standing to board, so rather than waste the best part of an hour queuing, we jumped on. The journey took about 40 minutes, but the bus driver was quite chatty and gave us some interesting information on the tulip fields, hence the first part of the title of this post.
The gardens are only open for 8 weeks, closing 10th May this year. We arrived at about 10:30 and were gobsmacked by the riots of colour and different types of bulbs – there were also spectacular specimens of camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons all at their best now. I’d defy anyone not to appreciate the wonder of it all…. There were people of all ages and descriptions to be seen. One young boy, probably about 5 was shouting to his dad “I wanna go home”, whilst nearby there were nuns taking selfies in front of the flowers!!
We walked and walked, taking in all the beautiful bulbs. Some had signs to say what they were and within minutes, I spotted a mistake which said the wrong type of flower on the label! Jezza was happily doing his David Bailey bit, so much so that there is an additional gallery on the blog which can be found by clicking here devoted to the magnificent flowers!
We came across a Street Organ which was playing music from a punched concertinaed booklet of card which fed into the machine and made different hammers bang on drums, cymbals etc. and played music. It was very entertaining to watch and the “organ master” was selling CDs of the music, but I think that was a step too far …
There were several fast food outlets, none of which particularly appealed, but we needed to fill a hole, so we chose a couple of non descript rolls – Jezza washed his down with a beer and I had a bottle of water – I can’t drink before wine o’clock every day, even when on holiday! 😇😇
Bearing in mind we had planned this day several months in advance, we couldn’t have been luckier with the weather- the sun shone for most of our time in the gardens and there was no wind…. We covered probably 99% of the gardens and I was able to procure the obligatory fridge magnet – I wasn’t allowed anything larger by Jezza, owing to zero extra capacity we have in our luggage …. 🙄🙄
We made our way back for the bus at about 15:30. We were getting tired, however, another tick off my bucket list and a day that I’ve waited for for several years that certainly didn’t disappoint at all 😅.
We were back at the AirBnb at about 17:30 – just enough time for a cup of tea before wine o’clock 🤣. Wine o’clock was the bottle of La Croisade rosé – a little bit of home 🇫🇷😂.
We decided to try the local restaurant which was only a 5/10 minute walk for us – Jezza had read good reviews on the food…. We asked for a table for two, but they were fully booked, however, they were happy to accommodate us at the bar. It was Hobson’s Choice for us, so we acquiesced…. Jezza ordered a beer and I asked for an Aperol Spritz, however, they had no Aperol 🤦🏻♀️. There was no menu, just everything written on a blackboard, so I was directed to the “wine list” on the wall. I’m sure that Northern Europeans love Riesling, but we have been spoilt somewhat with our lovely wines, so I politely declined from their cellar and opted for tapolino 💦 !! I think this irritated the manager, but I really didn’t fancy a bottle of shite wine 😂.
As the menu was written on the wall in Dutch, fortunately the barmaid/waitress was very sweet and translated for us. We both opted for the loup de mer/sea bream in sauce. Just to annoy the manager further, I informed them of my butter allergy – surprise surprise, it was cooked in butter 🤦🏻♀️. The waitress was sympathetic to my cause and said it wouldn’t be a problem 😅😅.
The meal arrived on a lovely fish shaped plate and was really delicious – yet another very large helping , but we managed it!! Jezza decided that it was time for pudding – a Dutch favourite going by the name of wentelteefje. We asked for the name to be written down for us and promptly put it into Google Translate – it turns out Jezza was eating Twisting Bitch for dessert – for obvious reasons, we found this most amusing 🤣🤣🤣. Jezza devoured the eggy bread served with cinnamon, honey, ice cream, fruit and who knows what else that he would be walking off tomorrow!!
Feeling more than well fed, we walked home and watched a little bit of football before taking our life into our hands going up the ladder to bed….
Total steps: 12,723
* So, the million dollar question is – who got the totes emoji? 🤔🤔
