Tulips and windmills and sandcastles, oh my!

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One of the most prominent tourist attractions in the Netherlands is the Keukenhof (pronounced 'co-ken-off'), which is a sprawling garden park replete with an assorment of tulips and other flowers, artful landscaping, ponds and fountains, not to mention other family attractions such as parks, petting zoos, and even a hedge maze. Kat and I devoted the better part of our day to the 40 minute ride from Leiden and back and to touring the gardens and soaking up all the natural beauty. Unfortunately, mid May is late in the tulip season, so we were unable to see the tulip fields surrounding the Keukenhof in full bloom, which can be more or less described as a multi-colored sea of flowers for as far as the eye can see. Must be nice.

Afterwards, we headed back to Leiden where I tried to recreate from memory my earlier city walk with Dale for Kat's benefit. I didn't do too bad, actually...we made it around past Reuben's birthplace, the university, St. Paul's church, etc. and back to the train station in one piece. Damn, I'm good. Not too modest, but definitely damn good =).

While in Leiden we also visited the De Valk windmill that I had seen before, and as I suspected, yes; it was still there and it was still a windmill. Fantastic.

Next, on the train back to Den Haag, then on a tram to Scheveningen where we checked out the international sand sculpture exhibits, which were really amazing. The complexity of design and level of detail were really impressive, especially in light of the fact the best sand castle i ever built was made by flipping over a bucket of sand and sticking a twig on top. What? Now don't start talking smack on my castle unless you've got a better one lying around on a beach somewhere. I could've easily lied and said I had recreated ancient Rome in sand, so at least some ponts for honesty here, people.

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Photos

Keukenhof
I must be getting old...there was once a time when presented with a day of walking around looking at flowers and other assorted green stuff would prompt me to wonder why I couldn't just stay home and play video games, but now...hey wait, why didn't I stay home and play GTA?