Easter Trip Day 3 - Keukenhof Garden

Our main activity for today was tulip sighting at the famous Keukenhof garden which is located miles away from Amsterdam city centre. This tulip garden is located at Lisse. Early in the morning, we took the bus to Schiphol Airport (bus no. 197). The journey took about 30 minutes. From the airport, we took another bus to Keukenhof which was also took 30 minutes. We bought Keukenhof tickets through online and it costs €21 for entrance and bus from airport. The bus from city centre to airport cost €13.80 (for 2 person, return). So the total cost from the city centre to Keukenhof is €27.90 per person.

Keukenhof only opens in spring from April to May so this was the best time to visit it. We reached Keukenhof at 9 am and there was already a long queue at the main entrance. Many tourists came in groups because I could see a lot of buses parked there. So, as soon as we got off the bus, we lined up. Once inside the garden, we all walked separately in small groups. So I walked with Bella most of the time. Plenty of tulips were planted here. I really mean A LOT! They came in pink, purple, red, white, off-white, yellow and they got their own unique names. Not only focussed on tulips, the garden also includes several species of flowers as well.

Besides flowers, there is an animal area where they were left to roam freely in a fenced small field. There were rabbits, pigs and goats. More than one species of rabbit were kept here. Towards the back of the garden, there is one big windmill where we could enter freely without fee. From above, we could see tulip field where the workers planted a lot of tulips before they were transferred into the gardens.

 

 

We moved to the next area where we entered an orchid glasshouse. This place was full of different species of orchids and several fashion dresses were exhibited here. We dropped by a souvenir shop here to buy some fridge magnets. Fridge magnets were sold at a normal price range between €2.50-3.00 each.

Then, we entered the tulip house. Inside this building, more tulips were exhibited here. More colours and species could be observed. There is also a cafe here just in case you need to take a coffee break. Walking in this huge garden is surely very tiring. In fact, I already felt extremely sleepy when I'm inside this building. My eyes couldn't bear anymore. (-.-)

 

At noon, we all gathered back at the entrance to take our bus back to the city. We had our lunch at Crystal Restaurant where the price is very bling bling. It's quite expensive but I think it's worthy since the food portion is quite large. I ordered lamb ribs where it was served with chips and veggies. 

Right after finishing our meal, Wanji & co headed to Ajax Stadium while I tagged along with Anis, Cipak and Bella to Dam Square. They said there is a lot of cheap souvenir shops here and I found out that it's quite true. Madame Tussaud also could be found here. If your got extra money and time, feels free to enter this wax museum. I bought one t-shirt and a lot of fridge magnets here. €5 for a t-shirt and magnets could be sold at €5 for 3 pieces. Quite a bargain. =)

After satisfying our souvenir hunting needs, we went back to out hotel. We had to pack our stuffs because tomorrow we were going to leave Amsterdam for Brussels which is located in Belgium.

Easter Trip Day 2 - Amsterdam & Zaanse Schans

Since the bus stopped in front of Hotel Victoria which is located just 5 minutes walk from Amsterdam Centraal, we directly headed to the building to buy train ticket to Zaanse Schans. Amsterdam Centraal itself is very pretty from the outside with the fade reddish Victorian look and it is quite big actually.

To get to Zaanse Schans, we bought tickets to Koog Zandijk which cost about €5.80 if bought from ticket machine or €6.30 if bought from the counter. Yes, it cost more if you buy it from the counter. I don't know why, maybe it's because they charge service tax as well? We walked to platform 10a and waited for the train there. The train has two classes; one is first class and another one is second class. We bought second class ticket obviously. The journey took about 20 minutes and then we walked for another 15 minutes to reach our destination. We dropped by a bakery to buy something to eat for lunch. I bought a few croissants and it was totally delicious. Crispy from the outside, and soft in the inside.

So, what's so special about Zaanse Schans? Well, it is a village where you can find everything. From windmill to museums and shops. It is located at the riverside. A lot of museums could be visited here such as bakery museum, wooden shoes museum and cheese museum. There is four or five windmills here. So, it's a good opportunity to take photographs with them. Surprisingly, we bumped into Woon Chit here. Here's our classmates from IMU-Strathclyde. Looked like a lot of people went to Amsterdam this spring.

The first stop we visited was a spice and herb museum. Here, they exhibits the equipments used to mill the spices into fine powder. They also sell the spices and herbs along with some souvenirs. My target was souvenirs of course so I grabbed a couple of pin badges and postcards.

Then, we're off to see a row of windmills. It's quite huge actually when looked closer. We didn't climb into the windmill because it's not free.

Next, we went inside a cheese museum. There's a lot variety of cheese sold here ranging from Gouda to Blue Cheese. I went to hear the briefing from the staff, however after she talk about rennet and stuffs, I knew that we could not eat the cheese because it contain animal source. Luckily I didn't taste the sample. I bought a windmill miniature and fridge magnets here. The miniature cost about €5 while the magnets are €1.95 each.

We walked further to the back of the village to see the production of wooden shoes. Wooden shoes are famous in Holland apart from tulips. They were so colourful and nice. A lot of designs as well. In addition, there were a few sets of giant wooden shoes outside the museum for us to take photos. Niceeee~ =) There a couple more of souvenir shops around this area but their price range was merely similar. 

Back in the city centre, we bought our lunch outside Amsterdam Centraal. Luckily there is a kebab shop there. So each of us bought something to eat. Then, we took the tram to find our hostel. From Amsterdam Centraal we took the tram to Van Baerlestraat. We were staying at Hotel Van Gogh (previously known as Hostel Van Gogh).

Hotel Van Gogh

Van de Veldestraat 5, Amsterdam Oud Zuid, 1071 CW Amsterdam

This hotel was not cheap after they charged us with city tax as well. So we had to pay approximately €60 for 2 nights (per person). After checking-in our hotel, we rested a bit before going out again to take photo with the 'I amsterdam' word statues. It's located just a few minutes walk from our accommodation. The nearest tram station if you wanna go here is Hobbermastraat.

We continued our city tour by visiting and shopping at Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam. It's located just beside the Holland Casino and it's very easy to spot. The nearest tram station is Leidseplein. I bought a t-shirt and a pin badge as usual. We hopped in several shops to find things to buy such as souvenir and whatnot. However, the price were kinda expensive in there so we postponed to buy souvenirs until the next day. We also took the chance to take photos at the famous spots in Amsterdam such as the canal and the tall buildings.

At night, we went back to the 'I amsterdam' place to take photos again but it was so dark. They should put some lights to make it more interesting. I went back to my room to take a bath before I went down to the cafe with Bella to lepak2 and drink coffee. Plus, we took the time to skype with Ida through my tablet. After spending hours downstairs, I retired to bed.

We were gonna to visit Keukenhof tomorrow. It's a garden full with tulips!

Easter Trip Day 1.5 - Cruising Along the North Sea

Assalamualaikum wbt, now that I'm free from school, I can continue writing about my Easter trip to Amsterdam and Brussels.

For Day 1 - Newcastle, please read here.

So after checking in our DFDS Seaways cruise at Port of Tyne, Newcastle and got our card keys, we queued up in the terminal waiting for the door to open. As soon the door was opened, we rushed into the cruise and searched our rooms. Our rooms were located on the Deck 4. After storing our backpacks in our room, we headed to the upper decks to had a little tour inside the cruise and took photos as usual.

On Deck 6, there were a few cafes and restaurants and also a souvenir shop. However, we headed outside first to enjoy the sea view and to embrace the strong cold wind. It was really really cold. The coldness of the winter still had not faded out yet. Then we headed upstairs to Deck 11 to see the Sky Bar. It's an open space where we could take the chairs and hang out there. A lot of people were already here to enjoy the view as the cruise started to sail off. The ship sailed off at approximately 5.30 pm.

Sea Shops, which is a souvenir shop located at Deck 6 and we spent a few minutes there shopping for foodstuffs and souvenirs. I bought several postcards and keychains. The keychains were slightly expensive though. The shop sells a lot of other stuffs as well such as handbags, clothes, perfumes, snacks and toys. I bought a few Lego minifigures from the shop. =)

We had a coffee at Bake 'n Coffee on Deck 7. The prince range for drinks was okay, but not for food. I bought a cup of cappuccino for €3.50. Fish and chips cost about €14, so nobody bought it. Plus, we brought along some food home just to be save. This ship also have a cinema, Kidz' Club and casino.

When we had nothing else to do that evening, we retired to our room and woke up in the next morning. For breakfast, I bought cafe latte (€3.50) and ate the bun that I brought along.

We arrived at IJmuiden, Holland at 10.30 am which was one hour late than the estimated time of arrival due to coarse weather along the journey. It was raining all the way from Newcastle to Holland. Ijmuiden is located 45 minutes away from Amsterdam city. We took the pre-booked bus to the city.

Welcome to Holland! 

=)

Don't Want An Ending

Alhamdulillah, today marked our last paper for our very final exam. I hope everything went well. Let's pray hard to get good marks so that we all will graduate on time which is on June 29th.

Now, we have to prepare for our departure which will happen in two months time. Yes, one year here in Glasgow seem so fast. Faster than I ever thought. We need to ship our stuffs, plan our journey, travel until the very end and shop for souvenirs. Yes, we have two months for packing, travelling and graduation. As predicted, I'm not going to graduation ball. I wanna go, but I don't think it's proper. Let's save up some money for anything else. Graduation itself consumes a lot of money (£35 for enrollment plus £39 for robe hire).

Exams was a mixture of moderate and difficult. I could not say that they were easy because you know, it's final exam that we talked about. Not some sort of tests whatsoever. I hope I did well. I really hope so. In fact, we all hope for the best for ourselves. I wish nothing but the best, for you too.. *eh, tetiba dirasuk Adele*

I will definitely miss this view from my window..

and these seagulls perhaps? XD

Mudah-mudahan Allah permudahkan perjalanan kami semua.

Amin~

Supermoon

Glasgow

4th & 5th May 2012


Pre-Supermoon

Supermoon