Sunday 3rd May

The highlight of the weekend today with a visit to the Keukenhof Gardens. We drive through the area where the bulbs are grown in the fields and see a few rows of colourful tulips but nothing like the postcards you can buy! You have to be so lucky to catch the bulbfields at the correct time and with the climate as it is it is very much a lottery as to when the best time is.
We arrive at the Keukenhof and they have changed the coach parking! I have been coming here for 20 years and explained to the group the procedure for me collecting their tickets and where the bus is parked only to be shown to be talking a lot of nonsense!
The new coach park is better and closer to the entrance albeit at the other end of the gardens.
After the glorious sunny day yesterday we arrive to rain and a little cold.
We are staying here for 5 hours which will be too long for some and not long enough for others.
As it happens we stay for over 5 1/2 hours!
I go for a walk around the gardens and as always am mightily impressed with the colours and smells of the flowers. This really is a place that must be seen.
At three o'clock all but two of the group are back.
After a bit of searching and a few phone calls from the information department our two missing ladies appear very apologetically at the exit. They had been directed to the wrong exit and were not able to make the correction with any speed! I am just glad they are ok.
From the Keukenhof I drive the group to Zaanse Schans to see the pretty old houses and the windmills.
We spend a chilly but enjoyable 75 minutes here before driving back to the hotel arriving just after six o'clock.