Bulbs, embarrassing Americans, and super friendly bus drivers

Bulb fields

We had a tougher time mobilizing this morning. Our day in Amsterdam took more of a toll than we expected and Jackie still seems to be parked in Eastern Daylight Savings time. We eventually made it out the door and to the bus depot in time to catch a lift to the Keukenhof (the tulip fields/tulip park). Three noisy elderly Americans broke the dead silence on the bus with their annoyingly high volume of conversation. They treated the entire bus to stories of their cool backpacks with neat velcro pockets they bought in Australia along with their rants on pigeons. We vowed to do our part to repair the international reputation of Americans by pretending to be cool Europeans. Sadly, I have a suspicion we still stand out. Our faux pas at the bakery of trying to purchase what turned out to be a display loaf of bread sealed our fate.

Site of the water altercation between Caroline and Claire

Anyway...the Keukenhof was a beautiful way to spend the day. The weather was gorgeous and the flowers were at their peak. Jackie, Caroline and Claire connected with their inner Japanese tourist and went camera crazy. Another failed attempt to preserve our reputations: Claire and Caroline began kicking water at each other and were scolded by a Spanish man. We saw this gentleman 10 minutes later and made Caroline and Claire apologize to him in Spanish. He was very kind and waved it off, saying it was no problem. Hopefully the embarrassment will cause them to think twice about behaving like imbeciles in public again.

Keukenhof

We abandoned plans to head to Leiden today, realizing we were in desperate need of an early evening. So, we headed back to Paul and Tanja's, picked up some dinner fixins and Lee put together a scrumptious chicken parmesan meal. When Paul got home with the girls and was putting Nina to bed, we all pounced on Saskia and kept her company for a little bit. These girls are in bed by 6:30pm every night! Now we are doing a little babysitting (not really because they are fast asleep) while Paul and Tanja are visiting with a friend.

Karen's observations of oddities:
•Counter height and toilet height are absurd! And forget the kitchen cabinets. I can't even reach the top shelf of the fridge!
•Bike lanes are awesome!
•I love having the butcher, baker, cheese shop and fruit/veg market so close.
•The electrical outlets are set 4ft. high on the wall.
•Bus drivers wave and say "goodbye" to passengers as they exit the bus.

Oh, the irony.

Lee from Nina's balcony (to fulfill Chris' request)