Day 2 - 19 April (Saturday)
Netherlands - Keukenhof
Good morning Amsterdam!
Early morning breeze was pretty unforgiving. Cheers to flurry boots and hooded jacket!
Off for breakfast before heading to #keukenhof for #therealgardensbythebay tulips field! :)
Took the morning tram and noticed this interesting booth:
Pink point, an information counter are gays and lesbians.
First stop, back to Amsterdam central for breakfast at De Bakkerswinkel.
Address: Warmoesstraat 69
1012 HX Amsterdam
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pmSaturday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday, 8am to 5.30pmSaturday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm
Note: a note outside states they only accept credit card but we double confirmed with them and found that they accept cash - only if it's exact as they do not have change. So make sure there's sufficient small change before heading over! It opens at 8am and we were there pretty early at 9 plus, not many people but by the time we left, there was already a queue even as they had the bottom and 2nd level's seats completely filled.
On the left side of the eatery was a row of fresh bakes like cakes (carrot, chocolate, cheese etc), huge scones (plain, raisins, cranberry and chocolate and many more!
It also sits a big oven where the pastries where freshly produced and juicer where the oranges were freshly squeezed.
My mocha latte has chocolate bits at the bottom layered with fragrant coffee and nice milk froth at the top.
Scone was average with delicious what-seemed-like homemade jams (passion fruit, berries and apricot/orange) and good moist carrot cake that was not too sweet.
NB'S eggs and cheese was delish but sourdough bread was as usual tough. Still fragrant though!
Must say it was a pretty good breakfast (lasted us till evening time).
Took a train to the airport where there is a bus to fetch us to #keukenhof for the tulip season!
Damage: €8.50 for Round trip train from central to Schiphol station.
Time taken: 18mins
Must be the holiday weekend cause when we arrived, there was a snaking queue for the bus ride. So many people were wanting to see flowers!
First shot of bright red tulips at the airport.
Teletubby vucumm cleaner! Saw the cleaner using it around the airport and thought it looked very much like the machine in the children show.
On board the 858 bus ride to #keukenhof along the expressway were farms with grazing cows and fields of especially colourful flowers and tulips. Love nature's colours!
Stationsweg 166, Lisse 2161, The Netherlands
Damage: €23 for Keukenhof entrance + bus ride. Buy online cause it is cheaper.
Finally reached #keukenhof after standing on the bus ride here. As expected, there were tons of people! It was a huge park with all these lovely flowers and apparently this year, it's the tulips theme so we saw lots of them!
Have never seen tulips these big and in full bloom! So colorful and very beautiful indeed, no wonder people import them over to decorate up for their wedding. =p
Expect bunches of these blossoms very much like gardens by the bay except on a much bigger scale! Coincidentally, we heard that the current theme at the#gbtb is tulips!
So it's seems like we are at #therealgardensbythebay haha!
Us with the cherry blossoms! Beautiful flowers in sweet lovely pink and white! Didn't get to see these at japan or korea but now we have it! Heh!
Anyway, within the park, there are also food at stalls or cafes but we just munched on our snacks. A hot dog bun cost about €4.
After the park, we crossed the road to a flower farm.
NB in a sea of flowers hahaha! #flowerboy literally. Keukenhof didn't have the vast field of tulips I was looking for so we went over to a nearby field to check them out!
The above was the closest I got cause the actual field was out of bounds and only way was to jump over a small canal (which only NB did). =p
The rest of us didn't want to cross over so we just helped NB take a photo! haha!!
Yu Kitchen
Address: Kolksteeg 1A,
Amsterdam 1012PT
Stopped over at Yu's family kitchen 余家小厨. Was recommended in TripAdvisor but we didn't go in the first round cause didn't notice anyone dining there but after looking around we headed back in.
Ordered Yu Xiang chicken with rice (1 chili) at €6.75 while NB ordered Gong bao prawn (2 chilis) at €6.95. Was spicy but the meat was well cooked with good Huo hou (wok taste)! Definitely authentic chinese food!
Unfortunately there was much selection, just chicken, prawns or beef with rice or noodles and 5 kinds of sauces but a good choice if you are tired of the local food! ;)
The Rijksmuseum (National Museum)Address: Museumstraat 1,
Amsterdam 1071 XX, The Netherlands
Spot Wally I mean, Cheng yee. At the popular "I amsterdam signage outside the museum. Everyone was climbing all about the alphabets so I could only have a quick take at the letter "A".
Took a stroll around the Stedelijik and Van gogh museum vicinity and saw the locals having picnic, playing or simply lazing on the green grass... definitely a good place to relax and people watch.
Our serene neighbourhood at Amsterdam. Though a little distance from the central, we had a comfortable stay! There was a nearby park to visit and we often see the locals walking their dogs and old couples strolling hand in hand in this perfect weather. Nice!
Lays cost just €1.29 here and it's a XXL packet! Unfortunately we were not in the best condition to snack on chips :( else I think NB would be grabbing those.
Our dinner from the supermarket loot. Refreshing orange and kiwi juice for the vitamin c and homemade turkey ham and cheddar cheese (one pack of cheese singles costed us just €0.79!) Sandwich. Simple and good.
Damage for Day 2 = €40 per pax
Photo (all except those lousy shots taken by my mobile phone) credits to Alexander!
