My vacation Part 2: Holland

April 30,
Today, we planned to visit Netherlands. Yesterday, Nuno booked hotel for us to visit the neighboring country. It is National Holiday in Netherlands. People celebrate the Queen’s birthday. People go out on streets of Amsterdam chanting and singing. People wear something in orange, the color of their royal family. So, we decided to visit there. It is also the best season to see tulips.
We took Nuno’s Audi to get to visit a flower festival in Amsterdam. It took two hours to get to our hotel outside the city. The place where we stayed is a pleasant town which is close to the sea. A lot of people were wearing clothes in orange – which is the color of the Royal family. It was Queen’s birthday. So, many people go to Amsterdam to join a parade. We parked our car at a football stadium outside the city and took subway to the city centre.
Streets were a full of people who were chanting and singing. Amsterdam was in chaos. The first thing we did was to find a restaurant.
“What are we going to eat?”
We thought about Malaysian food which is famous in the Netherlands. But we decided to eat Argentinean barbecue restaurant.
David volunteered to go to ask a local person as he did in Lisbon.
“Do you know any good Argentinean barbecue restaurant?” I guessed what he was questioning a lady in front of a sex shop. (As you know, Amsterdam is famous for sex shops and coffee shop (=drug shop). I did not want to miss this chance. I quickly took a shot of David and the lady at a sex shop!







The restaurant we chose was excellent. It is called Gaucho (cowboy). If you visit this city, you must try. See Nuno's face. You must be convinced.



-Waiters are friendly. Not like the Portuguese who blocked our picture at the Cerveceria in Lisbon. Good photo!-


-You remember him, don't you?-

After filling our stomach, we went around streets near canals.

May 1
This is my last day. We went to an amusement park to see flower gardens and took a bicycle. In the morning it was a fine weather and perfect for bicycling. The area is famous for growing tulips. We could watch beautiful fields in many different colors. It was extraordinary. I would say it is not good enough to see it in picture.






After a few hours of bicycling around the park, it started to rain hard. We spent some time there. We grabbed some sandwich and then we departed for the Charleroi airport which is located outskirts of Brussels.
"I hope we have enough time..." I hoped. I knew that Nuno estimated how many hours it takes to get there so I would not miss my Ryanair flight. But I was not sure we would have extra 30 minutes for no hustle and no hurried farewell.
It was raining very hard and the sight was not clear. It slowed traffic.
Fortunately, Nuno took me there in time but no luxury of time for much conversation before takeoff. In addition, the Ryanair extra 30 euros for excessive luggage. So, I had to queue to pay which stole my time.
I quickly hugged and kissed each of my friends and headed for the gate.
"Thanks Nuno, Lu, David and Athina. We should see each other again. Next time, I prefer not leaving first."

My next destination is Barcelona.