Living Positive: Amsterdam/Sri Lanka Adventure Day 5

Day 5: Happy and Sad

Oh the flowers! Today was tulip day! Although we are getting pretty good with the trams and trains, there isn’t a good way to use public transport to get out to the Keukenhof Gardens- the famous tulip gardens- so we took an Uber. This huge botanic garden is 32 acres and is only open from mid-March to mid-May for tulip season and will close this year on May 12. A non-profit organization runs Keukenhof and many of its members are the local flower growers and exporters. Surrounding the gardens are many tulip fields but most were empty since the majority of the harvesting is done.

We were almost at the end of the season and some of the tulips were done but there were many that were still very beautiful. There were many other types flowers too. Over a million people visit each year and it was busy today but the area is so big that the crowds are spread out - unless it is a popular photo spot and then..game on! With some cultures you have to stand your ground and push back, in a polite way of course!

We learned the proper way to plant bulb flowers and if you want to diversify so your garden lasts longer, we learned the lasagne way of planting, layering your bulbs. Every October through November, 40 gardeners plant 7 million bulbs after the designers have created the designs for the next season. That is a lot of planting! In fact they were planting replacement tulip plants while we were there which surprised me since there is only one more week of visitors. After that the gardens are closed for daily viewing, but opened during the summer for festivals and private events.

Fortunately, Mother Nature was cooperating again today as it was beautiful weather to thoroughly enjoy this special place.

After we left the gardens, we had the Uber driver take us to A’DAM Tower. Both of our tour guides had previously pointed this building out to us because it has an observation deck which enables you to see the entire city of Amsterdam and then some. After buying tickets, of course(!), we headed up to the 20th floor with a 360 degree view of the Amsterdam area. It was well worth it to have this bird’s eye view!

After taking the ferry back to Centraal Station, we made our way through the streets to the Jordan area in search of the Anne Frank House, where Anne Frank and her family and friends were hidden from the Nazis during World War II. If you want to visit, you have to buy tickets online six weeks in advance. We were early for our entrance time of 7:30pm so we decided to try the Pancakes Amsterdam restaurant next door.

Dutch pancakes are different from what we’re used to. Many are not sweet but are savory such as the ham and cheese pancake that I ordered. They are large - dinner plate sized - so I’m pretty sure after eating all of it you would no doubt sink to the bottom of the canal if you fell in!

A good friend of mine recommended that we watch the series, A Small Light on the Disney channel before we visited the Anne Frank House. It is a great show which highlights Miep Gies who was one of the people who helped hide the Franks and their friends. I’m so glad that we had watched it because it made our visit much more meaningful as it has been several years since I’ve read the Diary of Anne Frank. The museum and self guided tour of the house is very well done and is very impactful. It is heartwarming that so many people flock to this sight from many different countries to honor her memories and remember this dark era of history. We are very fortunate that Anne had the foresight to leave her diary and other works with Miep so all of us can know her story.

This ends our trip to The Netherlands. Tomorrow we fly out to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We had a wonderful time and are really happy that we visited. Tot Ziens!