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We started the day with breakfast at the Bakery down the street, and we asked them for watered down coffee for Steve, and the waitress assured us that their coffee was very weak Dutch coffee and so Steve said ok! When the coffee came it looked identical to all the other Dutch coffees he's had, and it was just as strong, so from hereon in it's Starbucks only, Yes, there are Starbucks here!!!
We took the train to Leiden, or so we thought, taking the right train can be tricky, the announcement board tells you which track to be on (1, 2, 2a,,etc..) then you can still end up taking the wrong train apparently, so we were on the train on track 2@ and this elderly lady with her little granddaughter was telling us they were going to the beach. Steve and I were going through the dutch alphabet (Steve is trying to learn it)...and the lady tried to explain to Steve what the word was for leg, she kept saying *been* and pointing at her leg, then she pointed at her knee *knie* so now Steve knows two new dutch words, what a scream! Then she informed us that
we were on the wrong train, apparently it was NOT going to Leiden, so we had to get off at the next stop, go back to Central Station and read the announcement boards again, then asked different people when the train came, is this the right train? and we were assured that it was, so when it started moving it went the same direction as the previous train, and the people on this train assured us it was the right train, so the first train we had been on had actually been right too, or maybe not.. its confusing... But Steve did learn the entire Dutch alphabet plus two new words! And we did notice and comment on how beautiful the seating was on this train, much nicer than the first one. Oh, and when the ticket man came by to check our tickets he turned to me and said in Dutch **that is a beautiful ticket but it says 2 on the ticket, that means 2nd class, but you are sitting in first class**...oh oh, luckily he just smiled and walked away..lol, no wonder the seats were so nice, so we sat back and enjoyed the rest of the
ride to our destination, Leiden...
Outside the Leiden station we found the bike shop where we could rent our bikes to ride them to the Keukenhof, but the two men in the bikeshop were extremely gruff with us and told us all the bikes were rented out, the one man said in Dutch to the elderly man, **there are two bikes here that were rented out but nobody came to pick them up, can't they have those? then the old man said, no! Then then the younger man said, well, then go ahead and kick them out...**we got the feeling not everybody likes tourists
! Then we asked where else in town they rented out bikes, and they flat out told us, NOWHERE...So, in the entire city of Leiden, there was no other place to rent bikes, so we figured, fine, we will take the bus, and the the very nice lady at the information kiosk who sold us the tickets, told us that there is ofcourse another place that rents bikes and its just a block away, but riding a bike takes 1.5 hrs one way...so we ended up on the bus after all and it was a good thing.. but the first business will be getting some feedback online
The Keukenhof, when we first walked in we we couldn't believe our eyes, straight ahead of us was this masssive *draaiorgel* (a barrel organ), it was about tha last thing we expected to see and a perfect photo op ... The Keukenhof was so beautiful it is hard to describe it in words, so we are just adding pictures instead, it is a must see, amazing, beautiful, colorful, cheerful, quiet, sacred...all of the above and more.....We really took our time to take in all the beauty
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Alie and Steve!! It looks and sounds like you are having a fabulous time - keep posting pictures - I love the country