Keukenhof Gardens
About a 20 minute drive from Amsterdam in South Holland/ Zuid-Holland, these are the famous tulip gardens that many of us have heard about but didn't know the name of.
I did some research early into our planning and found out that the tulips would be in full bloom in late April – we literally moved around our entire itinerary to be here then!
If you like flowers, then this is a MUST stop. Though it is overflowing with tours from around the world, the staff do an amazing job of 
maintaining the flower beds. Tons and tons of tulip colors and varieties that I could only dream of. With a bunch of swans swimming in the lake, this was truly a sureal moment of sheer color bliss.
Benelux Traffic, Brugge & Belgium
As we head thru the outskirts of Rotterdam, the midday traffic becomes a major mess. Worse than I've seen even in LA's freeways. What should take just a couple of hours turns into the majority of the day.
I finally realized that Rotterdam, Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium are the two biggest seaports in Europe and that is why there is so much truck container traffic. Because we lose so much time, we have to cut out Brussels and we only get 15 minutes in Brugge. Probably my biggest disappointment is that we did not get to spend the day in Belgium as expected, but race thru it.Channel Tunnel/Tunnel sous La Manche
The reason we have to race thru Belgium is our appointment with the "Chunnel" – aka as the Channel Tunnel in Britain and the Tunnel sous La Manche in France.
After driving like a mad German in Belgium we get to the port facility with 15 minutes to spare. We have to process thru both French and British customs (a la toll booth) and get into line/queue to load up. Single file, the cars load into these huge double-decker trains and they then close off each train car which holds 5 vehicles. We get to sit in the cars for the 35 minute ride to England. I'm amazed at the changes...what took almost a 1/2 day with the ferry in 1987 when I last drove to England is now down to just over a 1/2 hour transit.Canterbury
After a quick adjustment on driving the left side, we head down a local road to Canterbury. A policeman indicates the road is closed (due to a motorcycle and truck crash that we find out later from a local restaurant owner), so we're diverted onto a very skinny English country lane for about 3 miles. The scenery was simply spectacular...English rolling hills during sunset, but quite nerve-wrecking in the hopes that no one would be driving the other way. We arrive at Canterbury and cherish the small town atmosphere the city brings.
-- Al
No comments:
Post a Comment