Trip to Keukenhof

It was an ad-hoc trip actually. We almost did not make it. Many thanks to Dhylla and Rahimah for their effort in organizing this trip. At first we were told that the ticket bus (which comes in a package that covers the bus fare from Aachen to Lisse and Keukenhof's entrance ticket) on the date that we planned to go (and the only date that we could go) were almost sold out, so there were not enough tickets for all of us to go. So I told Dylla that it was ok if we didn't get to go this year because we still have chance to go in next year (Keukenhof is only open to public somewhere between mid-March to mid-May but the best time is in mid-April). Priority should be given to those friends who will be going back to Malaysia this year.

But then, a week before the tentative date of trip, Dylla informed me that there were some tickets still available for my family. So we can go with them....yeay!!!

We travelled to Aachen by Regional Express train. It was a long-5-hour journey and we had to board 2 trains in between. If we had used ICE (Germany's fast train) the travel time is less than 2 hours but it costs us a bomb. Unless we buy tickets much earlier using online system, we probably can get cheap ICE ticket but as I said, it was a last minute thing. Luckily the twin were so good and well behaved during the journey. They were bored of course, but at least they were not cranky.

We stayed the night at Hatta's house and woke up early in the next morning to catch the bus at 7.30 am. There were 3 tour buses waiting at Aachen town. Our own rombongan-cik-kiah group : 13 adults, 4 kids and a baby. So we made up about 1/3 of the double-decker bus.

According to the schedule, we were supposed to arrive at Lisse in 3 hours but the journey wasn't so smooth. The traffic in Holland was heavy and the bus often stucked in a jam. Then somewhere in Lisse town, the bus driver told us to get down and wait for the flower parade to pass through the area. More than half an hour later, the flower parade finally arrived at the place we were waiting. I was not very impressed with the parade. There were only 18 decorative vehicles in the parade and it wasn't as grand as I expected it would be. It was much better if we substitute the time for watching the parade to exploring Keukenhof.

By 1.30 pm, the parade session is done and we boarded the bus again to get to Keukenhof. Unfortunately, the traffic was still heavy, the bus was barely moving, so it took another 1 hour to get there. By this time, we were hungry and tired. And there was such a large crowd at Keukenhof, I felt like I was somewhere in a big concert or something. The first thing we did was to find a suitable spot for having picnic lunch. Lunch was great, we had nasi lemak, bihun goreng, mee goreng, sardin roll, karipap, sausage and bread. But since we had only 3 hours to spend inside Keukenhof, we had to rush.

Keukenhof is such a large park and with so many colourful flowers everywhere, it makes you wanting to keep snapping photos. Subhanaallah...this place is so beautiful and with only 3 hours we had, it was definitely no enough time to cover and enjoy the whole park.

We had to leave the place by 6 pm and arrived at Aachen by 10 pm. Insyaallah, if there's time and money, I would like to go again next year. But definitely will not be going during the flower parade time....so many vehicles, so many people, long queue of toilet users......such a waste of time and energy.

Oh, on our way back to Frankfurt, I videod some of the twins' act in the train, trying to entertain themselves during the long-boring journey.