Great Expectasia: April 2024

Timing was definitely not ideal, but a day after we got back from the US, I woke up early and hopped on a Eurostar to Amsterdam. I went with the Nature Nomads - a hiking group that has grown out of ASL, the kids' school, but includes many people with graduates from the school and others who have no affiliation. I have LOVED the hikes I have done with them this year (you've probably read about them in previous posts!).

The goal of the trip was the see the tulips in bloom in Keukenhof and the surrounding area.

Our train was delayed, but we made it (and we get a 30% reimbursement from Eurostar for the delay), and checked into our hotel. We had about five minutes (hikers are so low maintenance! I love it!), and then we met for an urban hike. We walked ALLLLLL around the city, and it truly took forever, because we were 18 people and random people needed french fries, quick stop in the condom shop, lots of pics, bathroom, etc. But it was wonderful, and though it was FREEZING and raining a lot of the time, it was absolutely gorgeous. We got back to the hotel with about thirty minutes to put our feet up before we headed off to a lovely dinner. As a mom who constantly plans for myself and four other people, it was delightful to show up at a place I was told and even have a pre-set menu! I couldn't care less what I ate! I didn't have to decide! Perfect. Being jet lagged and a lame-ass who goes to bed at 9, I suffered staying out until after 11 and our dinner was finished, but the people were awesome and conversation consistantly interesting.

Thursday started with a fantastic hotel breakfast and then a subway ride to a bus to Keukenhof. We had planned a seven mile hike around the tulip fields, but it turned out where we were, there were very few tulips with petals and the "hike" was on roads that weren't super pleasant to pedestrianate. It was also raining and freezing. So we split into half, I went with the half that did some of the hike and then turned back and spent a lot of time in Keukenhof Gardens. It might have been the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. You will see in the pics below. More than 7 million bulbs planted by hand by 100 gardeners for about eight weeks every year. More than 800 varieties of tulips. In bloom for about eight weeks a year - mid March until mid May. Truly unbelievable.

We had a delightful lunch (again, pre-ordered, yay! though not QUITE enough food for me. I'm a hungry dude). Then a group of us went back to the gardens to wander more. Unbelievable. We took a bus back to Amsterdam, had an hour to chill (we had already walked about ten miles that day!) and headed off to another amazing dinner (with few choices - yay! - but one of them was whether I wanted vegan, fish or beef, and the fish was herring - super yay!). They called themselves "plant forward." Another post-eleven night was brutal for me, but again, lovely conversation.

Friday we launched with another lovely hotel breakfast, and one of my favorites of the hikers and I walked to the Ann Frank House. Many of us had tickets, and we trickled in over a half hour or so. It is very very well done. I had been in 2000, but I truly don't remember it. They really explain what it was like and the whole story around them hiding there. I hadn't realized that Ann Frank was born two months before my grandma, in summer 1929. Then in the end she was taken to Auschwitz the same month as my grandma, April 1944. Then she too ended up in Bergen Belsen. Though she died of her typhus, while my grandma survived. Truly hard to understand how such tiny things can change everything. My grandma could have died a thousand times over from so many different things, and she didn't. Had she, I wouldn't be here (obviously - but hard to fathom it all). Very hard to see the antisemitism and see some of the parallels with today (and some of the differences). Very hard to now understand being scared as a Jew for the first time in my entire life being in a place like the Ann Frank House. Relating more than I EVER have (I was scared to eat matzah in public. I have NEVER in my life been scared to eat matzah in public). Felt very heavy.

After the museum there happened to be an hour canal ride leaving, so our group joined and rode through the canals with a bit of info from the guides. I then left the group and wandered in my own. It was actually a lot of time to be with a lot of people, and I was grateful for some independence. I guess somewhere in me is a tiny bit of introvert, because I also super needed to stop talking to people. I wandered towards the Van Gogh museum and stopped for some AMAZING Indonesian. The Van Gogh museum (I also think I went there in 2000) was really interesting and well done - I had the audio guide and enjoyed it. I then wandered to the Jewish area, Rembrandt area, got some snacks for the train and went back to the hotel to rest for an hour before heading to the train station.

All in all a wonderful gift to be able to do this. Once in a lifetime to see the tulips. And wonderful women to spend three days with. I'm very grateful.

what a gorgeous city

lego penis and loads of interesting condoms!

tulips!

most of the petals had fallen off in most of the fields we saw. Here you can see where the color changes from one row to the next. The middle row is a mixture of the orangier red on the left and the redder red on the right.