Lisse: Keukenhof tulip fields

We started off this trip to Europe by a bike ride around the tulip fields near the small town of Lisse (Keukenhof).

Actually, this is not quite true. We started by a trip to Decathlon, where I bought a raincoat and fleece jacket to combat the unexpectedly copious pelting rain and the fiercely cold wind. 

I bought this frumpy raincoat, which is low-priced and cheaply made, but it sure did the trick! I ditched the belt, as on me it ended up as an empire waist, which was just too weird. As I disposed of it, I said, "Ik wil geen riem," using the little bit of Dutch I have learned.

Suitably geared up, we made our way to Keukenhof, where we found a large parking lot to leave the rental car. There was a little booth with bikes for rent. We had our own bikes, but I stopped there to ask about the routes. The guy explained that we could follow signs for the route of our choice: green (20 km), purple (10 km), or red (5 km). If it had been a nice day, we would have ridden both the green and purple, but since it was so miserable, we opted for purple, which wound through the streets of Lisse and past the tulip fields.

Lisse, like every Dutch town, has beautiful churches, so we decided to take a short break from the rain and pop into this one, St. Agatha.

After returning the rental car at the airport, we took the shuttle back to our hotel, where we packed up our panniers and got our bikes ready for the train trip to Frankfurt. We left our bike suitcases at the hotel, planning to pick them up before flying back to Canada.

Then it was back on the hotel shuttle to go to Schiphol, where we caught the train to Amsterdam Centraal. Or so we thought. After a few minutes on the train, I looked at the screen with the names of the upcoming stops and got a bad feeling. I asked another passenger, who had the train app on her phone, and she confirmed that we were headed to Amsterdam Zuid, not Centraal. So, we got off and waited for a train back to the airport, where we made extra sure to board the correct train!

The train to Frankfurt was right on time, and we had no trouble loading our bikes and baggage. 

A few sights from the train station: 

  

A hot sandwich vending machine. 

For our daughter-in-law, Diana, this is among her favourite things!

Couldn't resist snapping a pic of this guy in his Toronto Raptors jacket.

And on the train to Frankfurt. We were running a little late, and the speed just kept creeping up! This was the highest I saw.

We arrived at Frankfurt Hbf (Hauptbahnhof) - main train station -- at about 22:45.

From the station, it was a short ride to our hotel, but because it was dark and there was a lot of construction, it felt a lot longer than it was. We made it, though, and managed to sleep a few hours.