Visiting the Keukenhof

So, we wound up going to the Keukenhof on Saturday (just too exhausted on Friday after arriving in the Sauerlands at 0200). We had stayed up chatting and drinking with F and G (my in-laws) past midnight on Friday and we wound up sleeping through our alarm at 0500 and not waking until 0700, so we didn't get out of the house until 0730. The trip should take a little over three hours, but this morning it wound up taking 5.5. The last two hours were in a stau (traffic jam) for the last two kilometers. We hadn't realized last week that this weekend, and in particular this Saturday, was the absolute height of the tourist season. Saturday was the Bloemencorso Bollenstreek, a flower parade that apparently attracts 100s of thousands of spectators.

Once we got in, the bulbs were absolutely magnificent. I'm including a few photos here but I hope to find a good slide show to embed so that I can put in more of the (many) photos I took. It was clear that this was a (fantastic) showcase for bulb sale promotion and I made certain that several of my photos contained the name tags for the bulbs so that when I am back in my yard in New York I will know what varieties to order: they are so magnificent in person that I never want to order by catalog photo again.

There was also a lilac (Syringa) exhibition as well. I'm a huge lilac lover and I was enthralled by the exhibit.

It was difficult being "out" in Germany and Holland during Passover: of course, most fast foods here are in some type of bread product. The waffles smelled so good! Luckily they were also selling beautiful strawberries in cups (with fresh whipped cream) and we each had a cup. Then we used those cups to get the home-made vanilla ice cream being sold by the wind-mill, which, with the bananas and apples we had packed, held us over through our visit.

The children spent the usual time at the playground (and I am so grateful that tourist parks here in Europe all seem to have them) and then as we continued walking through the gorgeous and brilliant beds we happened upon a path of rocks through the lake and Thing1 was excited to leap along it. I was grateful that she did not take a dunking because she wouldn't let me hold her hand.

We needed to leave by 1600 in an effort to get back for G's geburtstag party, the primary reason that we were here this weekend. Unfortunately, due to the afore mentioned Corso, the A4 was shut down. Luckily, when we stopped to buy some cut tulips, the women selling them were able to tell us that and which way we needed to go (which was through Den Haag) to get back to Germany. (And wow, were those cheap: 50 tight yellow buds for 5 Euros. G tells me that they are still looking beautiful three days later.)

We only got lost once and the return trip took us 3.5 hours, even with the roundabout of being redirected from the highway. We went by brilliant and beautiful fields of tulips all through the region.

Things I have done today...

• Of course there is an automatic extension for Americans out of the country on tax day (for filing, and we expect a refund, therefore no need to estimate taxes) but how strange that in Germany if one uses a professional preparer (and we will be using the German's firm) the tax filing deadline shifts to the end of December (ie 12 months later than the year one is filing for).
  

• I'm making banana bread.

The German kept on trying to discard my old bananas (the Things and he like only firm bananas) and i kept saying that I would make banana bread, so here I am. It's a James Beard recipe that my mother sent me. I have converted the F to C and then converted again to a convection oven and I had no lemon juice and so squeezed some orange into it so I have to see how it works out. If it's good, I'll make another with the remaining bananas I froze to use and I'll put a picture in. (It was good and I made a second loaf. I'll put the recipe in later, when I figure out how to arrange recipes in this blog.)

• I'm on my second load of wash and have put away an overflowing basket of folded laundry.

On Saturday I ran out to C&A, the only cheap clothing store that I know of around here, and bought the girls masses of inexpensive spring things. Can't beat 2 colorful tops for 3 Euros! in any case, I needed to wash everything thoroughly. Not only because I saw the House episode where the children nearly died after wearing unwashed clothes that had been contaminated with a pesticide, but because I had this experience with Thing1 after letting her wear a new pair of pajamas without washing them, and I never want to go through that again. I also now use Persil for sensitive skin.

• I had asked Jenn if it were too late to see spring bulbs in the Netherlands (something I have been saying I will go to see for years and years) and she said, not yet and recommended the Keukenhof . I need to head west with the family over the 26th for the big Geburtstag bash my sister-in-law is having as she turns 30, so I am now planning to take a day of the long weekend we had planned and head over with the family to the Gardens (only two more open weeks after that, so my timing is j-i-t! thanks, Jenn! I would have been really disappointed if I missed this.

Mmm, rhubarb compote on the stove...

You really know that it's spring when rhubarb and its companion strawberries are on the shelves at the fruit market. I bought a large punnet of strawberries and a large bunch of rhubarb on Monday at the market at the Bahnhof when I went back to Charlottenberg to visit Broken English. It was an interesting market: all Russian. I was tempted to try some of their deli, but my bag was already too heavy (I added kiwis and pears to the above). I had been going to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie (can't quite get my mind around pie crust without shortening yet), but the Things demanded strawberries as their due yesterday and today at snack time, so I wound up throwing together compote.

I love the ease of compote: slice the rhubarb, add whatever strawberries you have left, toss in some lemon juice (I was out so I squeezed an orange in), a little bit of water and start adding sugar (or honey to taste). Yumm.

Oh, and it rained again. Is this the 120th day of some type of precipitation?