Amsterdam: tulips!

 

If you ask anyone to free associate "The Netherlands," you'd probably get "windmills," and maybe "fingers in the dike." But I'll bet what would come up most often is "TULIPS!" And not without reason.

One of the reasons for the date we chose for this trip was a hope to see lots of these flowers in bloom.

And although I believe we might have been a week or so away from their peak, what we saw was still quite stupendous. And more than just tulips...there were several beds of gorgeous hyacinths, too, like the one on the right, and some other flowers I'll be showing you throughout this post.

The prime location for seeing as many flowers in one place as possible is the Keukenhof Gardens, outside of Amsterdam. Our helpful Viking hotel host made it super-easy to find the busses that take you there (about a half hour's drive, with the bonus of getting to see some of the cool modern architecture along the way that I showed you at the end of my last post).

There were a lot of people visiting the afternoon we were there, but it didn't ever feel crowded, the grounds are so spacious.

It's hard to say whether the massed beds of the same variety, or the beds that mixed types delightfully, were the more photogenic...

I still can't decide...what do you think?

The gardens have plenty of amenities, as well as all the flowers: ample bathrooms (an increasingly important item as I get older) and food options, too. We stopped for a light lunch of muffins and beverages by the lake you can see above.

Perking up the floral vistas are quirky artworks, like these "marshmallow drops" (the geese made a nice addition, too):

And there's even a windmill!

You can climb it, and here's what the adjoining tulip fields look like from up there (they would probably be more colorful in a week or two):

Here are what some of the other flowers on display looked like...

at first glance, I thought: bluebonnets!
but the helpful sign gave the correct name;
when they're white they're sometimes called "summer snowflakes"

narcissus and hyacinth...appropriately enough, the Ukrainian colors

narcissus, daffodils, tulips...I'm not sure what all's in this lovely display

We were in Europe at the perfect time to see all kinds of flowering trees in full bloom. But this big boy was the most spectacular...

In addition to the extensive outdoor gardens, they have a large conservatory that's simply packed with all kinds of tulips and other flowers. We spent a lot of time in there, taking many pictures of this incredible variety of colors and forms (the photo at the top of the post is one of the conservatory beds)...

I thought "spring break" was an appropriate name for these cheerful guys

there were a lot of amaryllis varieties on display, too

Such an amazing place! It was a highlight of our Amsterdam visit, and probably of the whole trip, too. But an important note for travelers: the gardens are only open in April and May!

We said goodbye to this wonderful place by noticing these sculpted tulips (outside the gift shop, of course)...they will never wilt or freeze:

Amsterdam: architecture

 

This was the view from our hotel room in Amsterdam, on our recent, very courageous, trip to Europe. 

Yes, I know I told you last time that we were on a Viking cruise. But we elected, this time, to take advantage of Viking's pre- and post-cruise extensions and spent two adventure-packed days in this wonderful city before boarding the boat. 

[Ideally, we would have done a hybrid vacation like we did in 2017, and spent some more time on our own before or after the cruise. But, given the uncertain health and foreign affairs situations, we thought being under Viking's protective umbrella the whole time was the better part of valor. And their extensions offered the bonus we wanted, making the long journey more worthwhile by adding an extra 4 or 5 days to our European stay.]

The extension gave us two nights in a very nice hotel right on a canal (in the picture at the left), a guided walk from the hotel to Rijksmuseum (more about the museum later!) on the edge of the old city, and help with getting around to see things on our own. The weather was not ideal, being cold and a bit rainy/sleety, but we were prepared with plenty of warm clothes and didn't let the cloudy skies deter us. 

The big museum (which we visited the next day) is definitely an architectural highlight of the city. Built about the same time as their gorgeous train station (which I showed you in my teaser post) it resembles that structure but is even more grand:

Not far from the museum is another building that's famous around the world, and also quite handsome:

And, as in any European city, the churches are just spectacular...

Basilica of St. Nicholas, seen from the train station

this *might* be the Oude Kerk (Old Church),
just glimpsed on our walk to the boat

Dazzling as these large community landmarks are, however, I found normal Amsterdam domestic architecture to be just as photo-worthy. Here are some examples:

just across the bridge from the Rijksmuseum

just a cafe...that looks like a castle

examples of Amsterdam's famous gabled houses

You can see one of the most interesting things about Amsterdam domestic architecture near the tops of the gables in the photo above. (We learned about this from our helpful Viking guide, in addition to very important lessons about watching out for bicycles—which were everywhere—and in astronomical numbers!) Every house has them: hooks for transporting furniture in and out of the apartments, when residents change. The stairs inside are apparently so narrow that it's the only way to move big items like beds and tables, not to mention pianos!

Here are some shots showing these essential appendages more closely...

In spite of the cold wind and occasional sleet, we loved walking around Amsterdam. As the first steps outside of my [admittedly quite privileged] constricted bubble in so long, it brought me a joy deeper than I was expecting: to be able to enjoy being in a new place, with wonderful things to see in every direction...Let's hope we can all experience this euphoria again soon!

happy tourists

---

Architecture postscript:

Just so you don't believe Amsterdam is a city stuck in the past, its wonderful old buildings notwithstanding, here are a few examples I spied out of the bus windows on our trip to see what the Netherlands is mostly famous for—which I'll show you next time...

All Aboard!

 

Yes, we jumped headfirst into long-delayed travel, as I hinted (not too subtly) last time. 

And what better way to shake off the covid doldrums than with a Viking cruise! As long-time readers know, we took one of these wonderful boat rides in 2017, on the Danube. This time we floated (or, rather, churned, since we went upstream) on Europe's other big boy, the Rhine/Rhein/Rijn/Rhin/Rain. (I'll explain the reason for all these translations as I tell you about our journey.)

Our luxurious craft was the Alruna, named for the Norse Valkyrie represented in the painting above, which was prominently displayed on the boat.

Alruna docked at Mannheim, Germany

As you know from the commercials airing all over PBS, as well as from my 2017 reports, life is pretty sweet on board a Viking longship. From the sundeck, where we spent a lot of time enjoying the scenery and playing games (no low bridges this time, so it was open all the time)...

...to the scrumptious food, especially desserts, that was always available in abundance...

...to the impeccably-served dining areas...

...I am totally convinced that the experience is worth the big bucks that it costs.

This time our specific stateroom accommodations weren't quite as splendid as last time, when we paid a little more for a big floor-to-ceiling window. 

the window in our stateroom #110 on this trip

But, of course, you don't spend too much time in your room. And although the windows were a lot smaller, the room itself was the same size as those on the upper decks. We were happy with our choice.

And we were pleased that we were able to eat outside as much as possible: pretty much every lunch, even when it was a little chilly. The rain that we had seen forecast just didn't materialize for most of the trip, allowing us to eat in safer, and pretty fabulous, conditions every noon:

In fact, the bright sunlight was more of an issue most days!

Barge traffic on the Rhine was pretty heavy, providing an endless slideshow of the supply chain in action, as well as some excitement when the traffic got heavier. Such as when we threaded the needle between these two barges:

good steering, Captain!

Of course, there was almost always even better scenery as we sailed along, and we made stops in some amazing cities, too. I'll be telling you all about those excursions over the coming weeks. For now, enjoy another glimpse of our noble ship, this time from [almost] atop the famous cathedral in Köln, Germany:

Alruna sits ready to take us to our next destination

Wordless Wednesday: Mighty [lot of] Ducks

 

Trip Teaser 2022

 

I know I have be quite remiss in blogging lately, but except for the short river cruise I told you about last time, I really haven't been doing anything blog-worthy. 

Well, that turned around, in spades, a few weeks ago. We shed our fears of covid, World War III, and everything else and took a big dive out of our pandemic comfort zones. I'll be telling you all about the trip over [probably] the next several weeks (I took almost 950 pictures!!). But here's a few images to whet your appetites...

a city where the rail station looks like a palace

gentlemen from a bygone era enjoying themselves

we saw a few churches...

...and a few bridges...

...and a few sculptures...

...and ended up in the most beautiful mountains this side of Colorado

Stay tuned!

First of two rivers

Having out-of-town guests is fun for lots of reasons. But one that might not come to mind right away is the impetus to do touristy things in your own hometown. Thus the San Antonio riverboat tour I took with visitors from Maine last month.

We had perfect weather, as you can see...

Casa Rio's iconic umbrellas

...and we enjoyed the many lovely sights San Antonio's downtown has to offer. Below you can see some of them. (Although there was none of the drama that accompanied my last float down this section of the river—yikes!—nine years ago. And we weren't paddling our own boat, as we often do further downstream.) 

handsome sculpture outside the Briscoe Western Art Museum

"Stargazer," an impressive new piece of public art

The Tower of the Americas, a vestige of the city's 1968 Hemisfair, can be seen from all over town, but is especially impressive when seen from the river. 

When our kids were little and we'd be driving west from visiting Granny in Houston, there was always a fierce competition for who could glimpse the tower first as we neared home.

An even longer-standing claim-to-fame for us is our suite of missions. You can't see any of them from this section of the river, but when you pass the Arneson River Theatre, you see this lovely collection of bells that represent the five sites:

More cool public art:

"Torch of Friendship"

...and architecture...

the former Joske's storefront peeping over the wall

funny faces on the Tower Life building

This is the former Nix hospital and medical office building where I used to go to the dentist. Yes, it is a building and not just a wall, although from this vantage point the latter's what it looks like. It just comes to a perfect triangular point. 

It's also full of the prettiest tile- and stone-work inside. I'm pleased that it's on the way to becoming a hotel...it's in a perfect location and is just too lovely to be an office building. 

And to finish up, we have some more public art, with our own Nix in the frame for scale. This mural is across from the convention center, which has its own branch of the river, and where we walked after our cruise:

For those of my readers who've made it through to the end of this post, I have a slight teaser. Next up I'll be showing-and-telling about a *slightly* bigger and more famous river that I floated on soon after this trip. Stay tuned!

Wordless Wednesday: Is it Christmas already?!?