Biking in The Netherlands – 07 – Haarlem to Leiden

[Categories: Travel, Photography, Travel Photography]
[This series of posts is about our recent 3-day sightseeing plus 7-day  Bike & Barge, Holland:Tulip Tour in the North and South Holland Provinces of The Netherlands.]
[See a list of all posts currently in this series HERE.]

Day 4 of our biking tour.  Biking Day 3.  Should be easy posting today.  The highlight is our visit to the world famous Keukenhof Gardens, open two months a year for stunning displays of tulips and other flowers.  I’ll just post a thousand pictures of flowers and be done with it.

Leaving Haarlem Tuesday morning. Pretty as a picture.

We bike through beautiful countryside to the teahouse and museum Cruquius where we watch our trusty, not rusty, barge glide by on the canal.

Love that barge.

Cruquius here.

KEUKENHOF!!  Despite the existence of quality black and white photography aren’t we glad human eyes see in color?  These photos are unenhanced, unprocessed, stock from the camera shot in standard not vivid mode.  My Nikon 18-55mm lens is the only one I brought this trip and IMO it works well.  This is my second visit to the gardens, the first 16 years ago.  I hope I never tire of it.

(Click on a photo and scroll down to click lower-right corner for a higher resolution.  Click again to zoom further.)

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MORE KEUKENHOF!!

It’s all downhill from here.  OK, not in the Netherlands, or not for very long if ever, but we are on our way.  We stop for an ice cream break at the Snack-Resto t’ Pleintje in Warmond.

Most of us are taking photos or videos like crazy.  One of our group is an accomplished graphic artist and spends her breaks drawing scenes she sees.  What a wonderful way to journal and remember your visit.  I am sooooo admiring of her talent.  Here is one of her sketches.

Just don’t call me late for dinner:

Goat cheese salad.

Dinner here.

Strava ride distance, including Keukenhof walking actually, is 27.1 miles.  Guide-reckoned ride distance is about 26.4 miles.  My HRM says 3,053 kCal burned in 8 1/2 hours.  In lieu of walking in Leiden (we’re not near old town center) we watch a DVD, then sleeeep.