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Europe 2016: Garden of Europe
posted : Sunday, September 18, 2016
Back in Amsterdam for one final night.
Actually in retrospect it seemed like a bad idea to book a hotel for the night considering I arrive late and have to check out early in the morning. Deliberately chose a hotel near Schipol as a result so I don't need to move around much but still need to catch a shuttle bus to the hotel, a 10 minute ride.
Hotel A4 Schipol
Pretty big room for myself. Thumbs down for the two single mattresses though.
Honestly was just so tired so I ended up oversleeping the next morning and only had 15 minutes to get ready and check out, to catch a shuttle bus back to the airport. Found the baggage storage lockers in the airport but as with credit card machines that are self service, they don't accept cards without PIN so ended up leaving my luggage in the staff's office.
Agenda for the day is Keukenhof! It's only open for two months a year during spring and did a bit of research beforehand, flowers haven't exactly bloomed yet when I first arrived in Amsterdam so decided to give it another two weeks and leave it right at the end of my trip. Bought the bus+entrance combo tickets from Schipol and caught the shuttle bus from the airport itself. Keukenhof is sort of at the outskirts of Amsterdam so it's actually more convenient to leave from the airport (buses from the city would stop at the airport first anyway).
It was raining but as we approached Keukenhof, the rain eased up, the clouds moved away and it's actually sunny with blue skies. Complementing all sorts of colors on the flowers in the garden which made for very very instagramable photos. Hahahah. Opted against the boat ride though, so didn't actually visit the tulip fields.
Main entrance
Random fountain
Lots of flowers. You get what I mean.
 
Very pretty colour combinations.
  
Flower displays on mannequins. This is one of the indoor pavilions.
 
Strawberries and cream!
Back to Schipol, and intended to catch a train back to city center for one last errand but there were track repair works so had to take a bus instead. Bought all my food souvenirs in town, revisited Dam Square which is now unrecognizable as celebrations for King's Day (which is in two weeks) have begun too. 
Carnival at Dam Sq.
Then back to Schipol for my flight back to SG! Once again, blessed with about 6 hours of sleep (interrupted ones but I will take that) and didn't even feel restless. Again, unlike NZ. And no jet lag either after I landed, managed to sleep at 10/11pm and wake up before 8 for work as usual. Surprised myself with that one. 
Till next time, Europe.
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