04-19 Flying to Amsterdam

Amsterdam is 9 hours ahead of Seattle. If you don't plan ahead, your first few days can be wasted because YOU'LL be wasted. For about a week before our trip, we went to bed and got up earlier and earlier. On our departure morning we were up at 2am. We are ready for Amsterdam-time. 

Our Delta flight left at 2:30pm today. Before landing at 9am Amsterdam time (9 1/2 hours of flying), we had already eaten dinner, had a mildly fitful night's sleep, and consumed a very nice breakfast. 

Our first views of Holland were the dunes on the coast, flower fields, and an IKEA store!

Getting through Customs took about 10 minutes, allowing the baggage handlers plenty of time to get our bags on the carousel. 

We gathered our bags and headed out the airport door to the bus area. The door we walked out of didn't have bus numbers matched to the bus stops on a reader board so we ended up just walking past all of the stops looking for our bus to Lisse. Even though we found and boarded it, we found out they need funny money called "Euros" or we weren't going anywhere.

Back into the airport we trudged, dragging our suitcases to the cash machine, in search of the Euros. We were out before the next bus arrived and we reached our hotel in Lisse. 

Our room is very small, with most of the area taken up by a king bed, and our window looks out onto a courtyard below. An excellent tasting lunch was found at a pizza place next door. 

This Saturday the area is having an all-day parade through 15 miles of towns. There is a building 5 miles from Lisse that houses some of the flower floats. They are putting the flowers on just like the Rose Parade does and we are going to go see them.

We bus and walk to the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek (flower bulb region) Bulb Parade Assembly building. They were making the floats with flower pedals, whole flowers, parts of flowers and bulbs, tulips and hyacinths (smelled so good). They let you get really close to the floats here. It's a photographer's dream. 

Arriving back in town we picked up some snacks for tomorrow and dinner at a walk-up place - spare ribs and potatoes au gratin - that we took back to the room and ate. Went to bed earlier than normal because tomorrow we want to be up early to get to Keukenhof when it opens, before all the tour buses coming from Amsterdam arrive.