Thursday 11th April
We left bright and early this morning to arrive at our house sit by 8:30am. I still can't get over how close all the major cities are to each other.
Once we arrived in Leiden we figured out how the busses worked and jumped on the number we needed. What we didn't realise was that yes it was the right number, but it was going in the opposite direction...whoops! We ran to the front of the bus and confirmed with the bus driver that we indeed needed the other direction so he stopped let us off and it just so happened the bus we needed was stopping across the road, so the lovely bus driver signaled the other bus to wait for us and we darted across the road and onto the right bus!
The bus drivers were super nice and had a little chuckle at our franticness!
We arrived at the house sit right on time! It is in such a beautiful area and house, and the family were so lovely. It was funny though, she said she was glad we figured out the busses because her mother-in-law had accidentally hopped on the bus going in the other direction, and she had a laugh about it, we nervously laughed along because that's definetly not what we had just done...
The little girl fetched Cú, the cockapoo dog that we are looking after, to meet us. Oh. My. Word. HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL!! He was so excited to see us! Cú is so gorgeous and fluffy!
We said goodbye to the family and spent the next hour or so playing with the excitable puppy.
Eventually we were all worn out and fell asleep on together on the couch.
When we all woke up from our nap we headed out for a walk with Cú along the canals and to the dog park. It is such a beautiful area and we are just down the road from Leiden university. It's a really quiet street with canals all around with quaint little bridges over the water and blossoming trees out the front of traditional Dutch houses lining the street, not to mention the bicycles parked out the front! It's also only a 25 minute walk into the city of Leiden.
We learnt on our walk that Cú has a fascination with water and ducks and is drawn to the canals and will try to chase the ducks! He also loves playing with sticks which was great! We took him into the dog park and had a great run around with Cú. He got very attached to a certain stick and would only run after that one, so we stashed it in some long grass so we could find it tomorrow!
Once Cú was all tired out we headed back to the house to put a meal plan together and to do some groceries.
We had both really been craving nachos but they didn't have any nacho ingredients so we settled on a nacho pizza and garlic bread for some fun (pretty good deal if you ask me). Apparently ovens aren't common in the Netherlands, because all their traditional dishes are cooked on a stovetop, so we were lucky that this house had one!
Oh no!
The oven had a really bad smell when we turned it on, and had a weird coating inside, maybe we won't be using it!
Next option. We thought the microwave looking contraption was a convection oven, but the tin foil on the garlic bread started sparking so we immediately pulled that out and tried again without the foil! Well, I don't think it's a convention oven, and it certainly isn't a normal microwave, but whatever it is we couldn't figure out how to use it. Our garlic bread looked great on the outside but was solid black burnt when we tried to cut into it. Whoops! Ok so no garlic bread!
Last resort, we can cook the pizza in a fry pan. The pizza was too big, so we ended up cooking the pizza quarter by quarter on the stove top. Unconventional, but you know what, it worked! What an adventure in the kitchen!
We followed it up with a nice cup of tea with a stroopwafel, and puppy cuddles. Stroopwafels are a traditional and delicious Dutch treat. They are essentially two very thin layers of baked batter (wafel) with a syrupy-caramel filling in the middle (stroop). They are traditionally balanced on the top of the tea cup so that the rising steam warms the wafel and softens the syrup in the middle, making it all gooey!
We were sitting on the couch thinking it was probably time to head to bed but didn't want to get up from having puppy cuddles, but as soon as I moved Cú looked at me as if to say finally, you've been keeping me up, and then took himself to bed! What a good boy!
Friday 12th April
We woke to one very excited puppy (I was also very excited because I got to wake up to a puppy!).
I ran downstairs and let our puppy out of his bed and had lots of excited kisses and cuddles!
He is so adorable and I am so in love with him!
He gets really excited and does this really cute bunny hop! He also loves to be picked up. We think he must have been picked up heaps when he was very young because he puts his paws up on you and the minute you bend down he wiggles his paws and stands up and squirms looking at you very much in a position to be picked up! He's not exactly small enough to be picked up though (although that didn't really stop me trying!).
He just loves to be in your arms and cuddled and close to you. He became my little shadow. Everywhere I went he was silently by my feet, not in the way, but just around. He is such a beautiful dog, well trained and just has a beautiful temperament and personality, exactly what I would want in a dog. He doesn't make a sound and is just so happy and buoyant and excited, you can see the love in his eyes.
After some breakfast and his tablet (although you'd think it was a treat the way he runs for it, I mean it is covered in peanut butter) we headed out for a trip to the dog park.
We found his stick and were playing with him, when I accidentally threw the stick too far to the left and it landed in the canal. Whoops, well we'll just play with another stick. Nope. Apparently Cú became very attached to this stick and he ran up and down the canal trying to get to it. He wasn't interested in any other stick I threw, and when I did manage to get his attention he'd run for the stick, look at it and then run back to his stick floating in the canal! It looks like I was going to have to retrieve it. Luckily there was a gentle current in the canal and it eventually pushed it down the canal and close enough to the edge where with Sam holding onto my arm to give me extra extension without me falling in, I could stretch out and get his stick! Well, we had one happy dog after that! He was so delighted that he had his stick back, he ran around with it excitedly for ages!
After Cú had worn himself out we headed back to the house and looked into where we could see some Tulips!
It was so relaxing and cozy having puppy cuddles that I fell asleep with Cú again!
After a cuddly nap we made a nice hot cup of tea (with a stroopwafel of course) and played a card game called Dobble, which is a surprisingly challenging visual perception game.
There are a number of games that can be played but essentially there are a bunch of images in different sizes on each card and each one has an image in common and you have to try and match it up before the other player. It sounds simple and not very intriguing, but it's actually so much harder than it seems and is all about perception.
Later that afternoon we took Cú out for another walk along the beautiful canals and a run in the dog park.
For dinner we decided to throw together an Indonesian noodle and veg stir-fry, with bitterballen as an entree. Now I know what you're thinking, Indonesian stir-fry? That's not very Dutch. Ah ha, but it is! Due to the relationship between Indonesia and the Netherlands and their past of Indonesia being a Dutch colony, Indonesian food is very much a part of the Dutch cuisine and that's obvious in the supermarket as it has all kinds of ingredients for Indonesian dishes.
We realised one slight problem with the bitterballen. They needed to cook in the oven, and our oven is currently out of action. Oh no! It's ok, we can make it work! We put them in the "convection oven" for a few minutes and when they all started to drop down from the rack, we transferred them to a fry pan with a lid on to finish them off. Apart from being a little burnt on one side, we did well I think! They were delicious! I love the Dutch food so much. I also mixed together a little mayo and mustard (no not strong and fine mustard, regular mustard) to make a nice little dipping sauce. All the while my little shadow was following me around.
I have to say I'm very impressed with how our throw together meal turned out! Noodles, a packet of stir-fry vegetables, goreng spice mix, and fried onion! Yummmm!
The rest of the evening was spent curled up on the couch cuddling Cú.
Saturday 13th April
We found out that today is the annual tulip parade at Keukenhof so we thought what better day to visit the world famous tulip gardens!
We started the day off with croissants, egg and baked beans before taking Cú for a walk. We learnt another thing about our adorable fluff ball, he doesn't like cats! There was one under a car on our walk back and he darted after it and started sniffing and checking every car after that!
After our walk and a run in the dog park, we walked to the bus station in Leiden and hopped on the Keukenhof express! There were A LOT of other people going to the gardens as well but the system was so efficient.
The drive to Keukenhof was stunning! We passed tulip field after tulip field and they were so vibrant and vast!
Keukenhof itself was absolutely amazing! So many beautiful colours! And the colours are so vibrant, even the pastel colours!
The flower beds were so fantastically designed and arranged, so much work and care must have gone into it. It really is astounding, I can't get over the beauty of it. It is definitely one of the cases where a picture says a thousand words, so instead of rambling enjoy the photos!
It was all so overwhelmingly beautiful, and the slight floral smell to the air was just delightful. It was such a wholesome day! There were so many beautiful tulips!! And not even just tulips, complementary flowers were planted in different displays amongst the tulips. Some fields were purely tulips of one colour, others were multiple colours. Some pastel, some bold, it was breathtaking.
They were all so beautiful!
There was also a really cool wooden lily-pad feature that you could walk out onto!
This year was the 70th anniversary of the gardens and the theme was Flower Power. So there was an indoor centre all decorated in 70's style peace, love, and obviously flower power.
There was also an area where they had created a "Flower Power" artwork out of the tulips!
We were very lucky with the weather today, the sun was shining and it was relatively warmer than it has been, but all of a sudden it started to get extremely cold! The temperature just kept dropping and dropping so we found one of the indoor garden displays in a kind of greenhouse building and wandered around there to warm up a bit.
The sky had turned a bit dark and it started to sprinkle so we sat it out in the greenhouse. After a little while the rain dried up but it was freezing outside, so much so Sam put on the pair of gloves we found in the bottom of my bag!
We found ourselves over by a windmill and underneath the windmill there was a fresh stroopwafel stand and they looked so warm so we got one! Oh. My. Goodness. It was sooo good! The wafel was warm and so fresh, and the caramel so gooey. Mmmmmm.
It was fascinating to watch them make it too. They put a ball of dough into a wafel press and then when it was done, take it out, and it already looks wafer thin, but they somehow manage to cut it perfectly in half horizontally to creating the two biscuits. Then they spoon the hot caramel stroop into and then press them together!
After our wafel we found a little boat in a canal!
We then discovered a little maze section!
It was then time for the flower parade! As were walking out of the gardens to the street where the parade was happening something magical happened, it began to snow!!
That explains the cold weather! Everyone huddled under the shelter at the entrance waiting for the snow to pass, and when it did we continued making our way to the parade.
The parade was really cool! There were marching bands, and school groups (one was a school from Australia, I still don't really understand that), girl guides and scouts, and then there were the floats! The floats were all made out of tulips! It was very cool to see and be a part of!
It was absolutely freezing standing out there watching the parade, and while we were there it started to sleet! A lot of people decided to leave at that point, but we waited it out and gladly took their places for a better view!
After the parade we headed back into the gardens for a few more hours of looking at all the beautiful tulips.
There was a whole area, and this may have been my favourite, that had a little waterfall, and rockpools, and the tulips were planted like a river of bluebells!
It was so beautiful, all the tulips were stunning, and the whole day was just so joyous.
Eventually it was time to head home. We hopped back on the Keukenhof express and returned to a very excited puppy.
We took our boy for a gorgeous sunset walk through the canals, before heading back for dinner and puppy snuggles.
Sunday 14th April
We started off the day with some puppy cuddles before Sam took Cú out for a walk and I whipped up some pancakes.
Perfect timing, I placed the pancakes on the table as Sam and Cú walked through the door. Talk about efficiency!
After enjoying a perfect Sunday breakfast and some more cuddles, we headed to the station to catch a train to Hillegom, where we were going to hire bikes to ride through the tulip fields!
We arrived in Hillegom very excited, only to discover that the bike hire place was apparently online bookings only, which wasn't what we read on the website beforehand. Anyway, we log on to hire them online only to find that you actually can't hire from them on a weekend. What? The next train wasn't for ages and we would have to go all the way back to Leiden to then go somewhere else, so we set off into the centre of Hillegom to try and find another bike company. The train station was about a half an hour walk away from the centre of town, so we had a lovely long walk through the suburbs exploring this little Dutch town.
We eventually made it into the town to discover that the whole town was pretty much shut down on Sunday. Oh dear. Not to worry we found the nearest bus station and found one that was going to Keukenhof and we know we saw bikes there yesterday.
Half an hour later the bus arrives and the ticket system on the bus is broken so the bus driver says its a free ride! Things are going back up!
We arrive in Keukenhof and see the abundance of bikes! It's fairly cool again today so along with our bikes we hired a pair of hand warmers each. Well, the people in front of us had bought hand warmers and were told they didn't have any! So we resigned ourselves to not having them, then when we're called forward our guy went on a hunt and found a pair for each of us and as we're walking away we hear them telling the people behind us that they don't have any. What perfect timing in the end!
The hand warmers are really cool and so worth the 3 euros! They definitely kept our hands warm and shielded from the cold wind. They were floral covers that basically went over the handlebars and were a lunchbox kind of material on the outside, but fluffy and warm on the inside! We could still reach the gears and breaks under them.
Today was definitely one of my favourite days, maybe even THE favourite of the trip so far.
It was so beautiful and so different to the gardens in Keukenhof. We rode 15km over the day through the Dutch countryside, small towns, and fields upon fields of vibrant tulips! It was so incredible. The vastness, the way the tulips just look like a sea of superb colour, so delicate blowing in the wind. I can't tell you, it's magical, and just makes you all bubbly and happy, I was in awe!
The fields were beautiful from the ground, and then Sam sent the drone up and we saw a completely different perspective. We could see the patchwork of colour from the sky and it was stunning!
Cycling the fields on the Dutch bikes has been such a dream, and it was so much fun!!!
It was such a joyful day, full of such happiness!
The fields upon fields of colour were so breath taking!!
I'm so glad that we actually ended up hiring the bikes from Keukenhof in the end. They were geared up for exactly what we were doing and the loop that we took was well signposted!
We cycled the bikes on a loop through the Bollenstreek area which is the area in the Netherlands where main fields are.
We had such a good time and I didn't want to stop! Cycling was so much fun, and seeing the tulips was incredible! We made it back to the hire place with 1min to spare, talk about perfect timing!
We returned our bikes and headed over to the Keukenhof express bus to take us back to our waiting puppy.
We arrived home to our boy who was so excited to see us and took him straight out for a stunning sunset walk and run in the dog park.
We then made our now famous noodle stirfry for dinner and settled in for the night.
One thing we didn't account for from today was how sore our butt bones would be after sitting on bike seats all day! The bikes also have a stand or shelf on the back of them for a basket to be placed on, and not being used to this style of bike, upon swinging my leg over the bike I bashed it on this shelf pretty hard and throughout the day I knocked it a couple more times without realising. Well, from this I developed what I have dubbed, The Great Bruise of 2019. Woooowwwweeee a big old bruise developed from it and let me tell you it was sooo painful.
After dinner I decided to draw a nice deep bubble bath (with so many bubbles)! It was delightful. While I soaked I had tea with stroop wafel and watched the last episode of Game of Thrones, ready for the new season tomorrow!
It was time for more puppy snuggles before crawling into bed for the night after a very happy day.
Monday 15th April
We woke up for our last morning in Leiden and the release of Game of Thrones!
We sat up in bed and eagerly watched the long anticipated episode!
It was then time to let Cú out of his bed and have our traditional morning cuddles. My little shadow then followed me as I got pancakes ready for brekkie again for us, and organised Cú's meal. We had the whole day here as our house owners don't arrive back in until late tonight.
After breakfast we then curled up on the couch and called Pete for a nice catch up with both our times actually lining up for once!
We had an early lunch and then took Cú with us for a walk into the city of Leiden for an explore. The town is really nice, full of cute streets with outdoor cafes, canals and little bridges, areas of green grass and windmills.
After a good walk around the town we headed back and enjoyed a little treat of Nutella waffles before cleaning up the house and packing.
We played with Cú and then soon enough it was time to get dinner ready. Where did today go? Dinner was so good, we have perfected our noodle stiryfry by adding the secret ingredients of soy sauce (the thicker stuff) and a little sweet chilli.
We had our last cuddles with Cú and then it was time to say goodbye. It was so hard to leave him, I love him so much and have become so attached. There may have been a few tears shed.
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