We are off to the Keukenhof Gardens today and once again
leave at 09:00. Instead of going directly to the gardens I drive past on the
motorway and then cut back on the low roads to see if there are any bulbs in the
fields. I try this every year and it is not often you are rewarded with carpets
of
The gardens are in the small town of Lisse and I manage
to go over the railway crossing without the barrier coming down for 10 minutes!
There are lots of cars queuing to park and I can see it
is going to be very busy inside. The gardens are busy at the best of times but
today it will be busier than usual with lots of local people enjoying the
sunshine.
I walk the group to the entrance and manage to get my
tickets without the normal queue and they are all inside by 10:30. We are due
to depart at 16:30.
I have a walk around to take some pictures but it is too
busy for me so I don’t last too long! Every time I go to take a snap some
tourist gets in the way posing for another camera!
I am not a gardener but always enjoy coming here as the
colours and displays are fantastic.
After six hours we depart the Keukenhof with twenty
satisfied but worn out passengers, it will be a quiet drive home!
As soon as we leave the coach park we join another
traffic jam and lose about half an hour before reaching the motorway.
Chelsea are playing away to Manchester United and I
manage to receive radio 5live on my phone and can listen to the commentary.
After twenty minutes I lose this and spend the next twenty minutes trying to
listen to the coach radio which is a bit painful and distorted!
By the time we arrive back at the hotel I can hopefully
hear the last half an hour.
As I arrive at the hotel there is one other coach parked
and he has parked as far back in the bay as possible leaving me some room to
squeeze in. It is a bit tight with lots of white metal bollards adn to my
absolute annoyance I catch the front of the coach on one! Bum!!
I hate marking the coach but I suppose this is about the
best time to do it as the bus is due to go into the body workshop to have the
other scratches and dents taken out. It is starting to look a mess and needs
doing very soon.
Everybody is very sympathetic and even though it was a
tight spot to park in I should have been concentrating more and could kick
myself.
At least Chelsea win 1 – 0 at Old Trafford so not all bad
news.
I have a few things to sort out and need to speak to
Wendy as we have had a couple of problems at work over the last few days so
have decided to take myself out for dinner tonight.
The hotel has a fine looking Asian restaurant called
Tasty Wok or there is a Chinese restaurant across the road but I plump for the
Van De Kaiser steak house which is joined to the hotel.
I have a quick beer in the town at a bar that hasn’t
banned smoking yet so am not in there for long before going for my steak.
A delicious fillet steak later I am a lot happier though
a bit poorer but it was worth it.
An early night ready for tomorrows homeward journey which
will be friendlier than on the way here! I am leaving in plenty of time so we
can accommodate and hold ups.
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