More flowers!

Smitonius:

So we travelled up to Amsterdam in our trusty campervan (though we had left it too late for a space at Zeeburg and slept in one of the huts instead). It was good to plan to do lots of walking because we eat like this little pig:

The 'rice-table', Sonata mentions, looked like this:

And that is not all that was served. My partner, as a precaution, had taken an extra bottle of gas in the campervan as unsure how much there was left in the canister. Suffice to say we did not cook in the van at all.

We saw plenty of beautifully decorated windows:

And some which had live residents, such as this cat. In fact, we even saw a cat in a bakery... mouse sandwich anyone?

Amsterdam was as stunning as always, and we walked by canals and through markets. But a real highlight was the Keukenhof flower show. I hadn't quite realised that my little sister was not particularly flower friendly, so she was a real saint coming to the show, but, heck, it must be dreadful to live in the land of tulips if flowers are not your thing: they are everywhere after all. This was outside an antique shop in Amsterdam:

Unfortunately, at the flower park, the variety of tulip that was called Zombie had not yet flowered, but we saw plenty of other varieties. Some were planted in rows:

But often flowed like a beautiful indigo river of hyacinths:

And did you know they could dye roses like this?

There was also a special display in honour of Poland. And there was a portrait in flowers of Chopin. A couple who had climbed the rostrum without reading the sign eagerly discussed who it might be, and decided it had to be Bethoven. At least it was another composer!