3 April 2017 - day three in Amsterdam - the Kuekenhoff and day one of our river cruise

After a lovely breakfast we checked out of the hotel arranging to leave our luggage there while we headed out to find the keukenhoff gardens. We would comeback for the luggage later that day as our check in time to the ship was not until around two. 

It was a grey day with intermittent rain but not cold or windy, just a little damp. Step one - We had to go to the train station and catch a train out to the airport. We had to catch the tram to get to the train station so we headed off and accomplished this with little difficulty. When we arrived a the train station we had to figure out which machine to use to get our ticket for the train and while we were looking at the different machines we happened to ask a lady passing by which machine we would have to use and she directed us to the proper one in a totally different area of the station. Thank goodness for kind locals. We got on the train and were at the airport in no time. 

We asked about where to catch the shuttle bus to the Keukenhoff and were again directed by Kindly airport information people to the correct location. On the other side of the airport from where we were. We had to wait for just a short while for the shuttle but it was a pleasant wait and were on the road in no time. There are a lot of bicycle trails all over Holland and around Amsterdam . We saw many cyclists riding out in the country  and the fields and farms were lovely. The Kuekenhoff gardens are world famous for their tulips in the spring and we were excited to see it. 

I had brought a little bit of mom and dad to sprinkle there  at the appropriate spot.We arrived and our admission was included with the shuttle price so just headed in to find thousands of tulips, daffodils and other flowers in bloom. Displays of different kinds all over the place . A few indoor displays and some coffee shops and gift shops to entice the happy customers to purchase souvenirs to remember these very beautiful gardens. We wandered around there for about t2o hours taking lots of photos and looking a some of the more unusual flowers trying to remember their names for the future wen we would be purchasing bulbs.

We found the small bulb shop in the middle of the gardens and proceeded to pick out our favourite packages to be shipped back to Canada. I had promised to bring back tulips for my friends and family for their gardens and Margie was going to have a lovely display in her yard. It wasn’t cheap and we arranged to have them all shipped to Margies home address Before the frost set in in October. We told them we live in Canada and so we had to get them before the end of october. They said it was no problem. We left with visions of lovely garden next year back in Edmonton drifting through our heads.

We found a lovely and quiet little dutch garden with the blue dutch porcelain pattern in it a sprinkled Mom and Dad there. 

 So we happily departed the gardens and retraced our steps to the hotel, Shuttle to the airport, train to the station, tram to the hotel, where we then gathered our luggage and caught the Viking shuttle to the ship. Viking river cruises really take good care of their passengers. We Were  taken to the ship and they loaded our luggage into the ship and brought it to our cabin witch was a very nice cabin with a small window above the water line. I guess you could say that we were in the basement of the ship but it was still very nice and the airfare was really cheap because we booked that room. We went to the meet and greet and met the crew and were given all the particulars about the ship. The river cruises were almost always on longboats, boats made just the right size to fit through all the locks that we would be going through.

The ship, the Modi, was lovely with great decor everywhere. Very luxurious looking and very comfortable. We left the dock and set off to ride the rivers of Europe in style. Our first dinner was with some very nice people Jo and Belinka and another couple who  he talked a lot and knew everything. A  little awkward for the dinner conversation but we survived and the dinner was very tasty. They served us well and never let our wine glasses be empty so I am not really sure how much I actually drank.  

After dinner there was a gathering in the main lounge upstairs to go over the next days itinerary . After that we decided that we were just really tired and so went to unpack and go to sleep early as we had had a very busy day. Happily ensconced in our lovely little cabin we fell asleep with visions of tulips and daffodils dancing in the rain.