Amsterdam Day II Keukenhof part deux

And we continue our tour of the Keukenhof- and I've taken these flower shots out of order. I could give the play by play of the day, but in truth it isn't going to make any difference to you, and to me... well- its already a little foggy. I will say that this particular exhibit below, which sort of had a "bridal" theme was seen just prior to our blood sugar dropping to dangerously low levels. Well... my blood sugar at least.Ready to see more flowers?? Well... at this point I needed a drink, Kate kind of looks like she had to much to drink, I caught her mid blink I think.... (ooh a rhyme). We had our first Dutch/Belgium style fries with mayo here, and they lived up to our expectations despite the fact that we bought them from a park's cafeteria. The Heineken, in full disclosure not much better than what it tastes like in the U.S., contrary to popular belief. I really found it to be the same sub-par, cheap beer... marginally better than Budweiser, worse than pretty much everything else I'd drink, Miller High Life, Schlitz, and PBR included. (I've been known to get the latter when ever I see a good deal.. or Schlitz in a bottle... there's just something about it).

Beginning the showcase of out-of-order photographs is Kate standing in the giant wooden shoes. Yes, Kate took some lovely shots of me in the spacious clogs as well... and some strange woman even photo bombs, albeit unintentionally. (I actually just became aware of the term "photo bomb" today and decided to make use of it. Pretty frickin out of it and square huh? Lets face it, the "rube" force has always been strong with me). Lovely masonry by the way.

This is Kate looking depressed near the harvested tulip fields. Sadness. The park was still beautiful. It could have been MORE beautiful, but alas, it was what it was.

Kate sitting in the middle of three purple flower pots.

Disclaimer: the remainder of the photos in this entry were taken by Kate M. Fazio on May 14th, 2011. I can not take any creative licence for these, other than for my strange desire to be photographed next to this clearly AWESOME pained fiberglass elephant.

CUBES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was an obnoxious family photographing themselves by the cubes- ignoring signs that said don't walk on grass or touch the cubes. The mom was instructing her little boys to pose looking like big strong men holding the cubes up. The boys seemed more interested in kicking them or trying to scale the cubes, which moved violently (I think they were paper mache on a wire frame, made from magazine clippings). We spent some more time regrouping while Kate waited 15 minutes to get this excellent shot. I plan to hang it up next to a great picture of some spray-painted hay bails we saw several years ago in a sculpture garden in Queens ;) .

At this point, we are very much of the mind---- what haven't we seen? Is it time to go? Are we getting tulip gardened out? I think we are. But alas we find this cool maze which was incredibly easy to maneuver- I'm not even sure we took one wrong turn. But don't forget these photos are out of order--- so while this story would soon be ending for me, you are only 3 quarters of the way through, or something like that.

I really like this shot Kate took of the stream. A simple unexceptional scene, yet somehow it stands out to me. I think I just really like how the flowing water is captured amidst the greenery.

WINDMILL! First one we saw, and we even got to climb up to the deck, very cool. We listened to a little abbreviated "history of the windmill" delivered by one of the park employees. Apparently this one was moved here and used to be a grain mill. They give the illusion that it is a mill to pump water, as so many in the Netherlands are, but today it is actually non functional- or it spins, but does not serve a purpose other to look pretty and educate.

These weird flowers are super cool. Kate took a lot of time getting great photos of these. There are several I could have picked from, and I have no idea which shot was the best to use. I used my best judgement.

More harvested fields. I think this is the photo that actually shows one small patch where purple flowers remain, but you can't really tell by looking at it here. We barely could tell in person in all honesty.

Note the canal. While chilling out looking at it we saw a massive 3-4 foot long fish leap out of the water. Probably some sort of invasive carp. It was awesome. Lets hear it for mutant gold fish helping make our day that much more interesting.

Some dweeb smiling in front of azaleas or some sort of pink flowery shrubbery.

I could keep posting pictures of flowers... we certainly took enough, but I think next chapter in this documentation of our 2011 European jaunt will move back to the city.

My moving in stuff is winding down a bit now, really it is. I'll try to get a few posts in the next couple of days. On July 10th I have a work related trip to Japan- so I'll slip into obscurity for a week. But if I get the chance while I'm there, I'll document some of it and try to share.

Till next time,