Traveling solo �� visiting Holland at tulip time

Seeing the Dutch tulips in full bloom has been my dream for several years. Coming from a family where everyone travels extensively, I asked around to see if anyone wanted to go to Holland to see the tulips. However, everyone had been to Holland several times and no one was interested.

Getting there

It's easy and inexpensive to go to Holland all through the year. Loads of tours, from seniors studying art to river cruises to... brr... winter vacations, are available.'

However, I wanted to go at tulip time, which is the busiest time of the year. I wanted to see Keukenhof, the 80-acre park at Lisse which has six million tulips. Although the park opens in late. March and stays open until about the third week in May, the tulip season is not all that time; if you go early, you'll see lots of daffodils.

Most people plan ahead to go see the tulips. When, I was trying to make 'plans in the third week in March 2000, I found that the 'usual U.S. tours that would include Keukenhof were already booked. I had not planned earlier because. of a family situation. Once that was resolved, I could think about tulips.

My travel agent helped me with some of the details. She booked a flight on Delta from Dallas to Amsterdam for" about $544. She tried several tour companies to see if I could get a tour for my time in Holland.

I had also researched tours on the Internet and knew that Northwest Airlines had a tour.

This turned out to be a tour that left every Monday so the travel agent had no trouble booking it. From talking to others on the tour I found that it is possible to get the same tour through other airlines.

The tour did not include Keukenhof but I knew that I could buy a combined rail/admission ticket in the Amsterdam train station that would take me by rail to Leiden and then by bus to Lisse and Keukenhof.

Amsterdam

My plan was to spend five days on my own and five days on the tour. However, for the five days on my own I needed a hotel in Amsterdam. The travel agent was unable to find me a hotel in Amsterdam at any price and was afraid I would end up with no place to stay. Not only was it tulip time, but Saturday was the Queen's birthday, the biggest day of the year.

On my own I faxed Bed and Breakfast Holland and in a few days the office faxed me back complete instructions to my B&B in Amsterdam. I would spend three nights there before the tour of Holland and Belguim and two nights afterward. Instructions on which train to take from Schiphol Airport and which tram to take from the train station made the whole process simple.

For this trip to Holland I traveled with one 21-inch roll bag and a small carry-on, easy to get on and off public transportation.

The cost of the room per night was around $32. Located in a lady's house, the room had a large door-window opening to the family garden. The bath was just off the room and was shared with the family and the other guests who had the front bedroom. The lady did not speak very much English. She smiled a lot and brought me my breakfast each morning.

I had a table and chair plus toaster and coffee- and tea-making facilities in the room.

I arrived in Amsterdam on Friday before the Queen's birthday on Saturday. My seatmate on the flight, an American returning to Holland for a visit, assured me that the city was wild on the Queen's birthday, so I planned to go to Keukenhof on that day.

I arrived early enough on Friday to settle in, take a rest and then visit the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum. From my bed-and-breakfast it was only about a 20-minute tram ride to the museums.

Off to Keukenhof

After a good night's sleep I took the tram to Centraal Station in Amsterdam. At least, I tried to. The tram driver let everyone off at an underground station and I took this into the train station. Only through the underground was any traffic allowed to move into downs town Amsterdam. The center of the city was blocked off for the festivities.

The crowd at the train station was wild and rowdy and maybe some were already drunk early in the morning. However, it was all in good fun with everyone wearing orange crowns in honor of Queen Beatrix. I bought a combined train-bus Keukenhof ticket for about $23 and got on the train to Leiden, and from there a bus took me to Keukenhof.

At Keukenhof the tulips were in full bloom. A few daffodils remained, but mainly the beds were filled with tulips often bordered with blooming grape hyacinths. Pavilions on the grounds had special exhibits. One was filled with blooming chrysanthemums. My favorite of several special gardens was the music garden where the trees were equipped with hidden loudspeakers. As one Englishman said, "That bloody tree is singing!"

Everybody had come to Keuken hof that day -- Germans, English, French, Dutch... For the Europeans, Keukenhof is just a day trip.

I spent most of the day walking around Keukenhof. My B&B lady gave me ample cheese and meat and bread for breakfast, so I had taken lunch along. The Dutch had thermoses of coffee with their lunches and umbrellas against the sporadic showers, but I wasn't quite as well prepared. That same day a flower parade was held in nearby Lisse, but my legs refused to carry me the few blocks to see it.

Museum day

Returning, I retraced my journey with a bus shuttle to the Leiden train station and the train into Amsterdam. The crowd was even larger and rowdier in Centraal Station but again not out of control. Asking a few directions, I again got on the underground, which took me out of central Amsterdam where I could get a tram to my bed-and-breakfast.

Sunday, despite litter in the streets, all was quiet and I took the museum boat which travels the canals and allows you to get off and on at various museums. I visited the Anne Frank House and Rembrant's house and saw the "Skinny Bridge," one of several traditional bridges left in Amsterdam and other places in Holland.

Holland-Belgium tour

Monday I took an early train to Dam Square and to the hotel where my tour was meeting. The tour enabled me to see much of Holland and Belgium that I couldn't see on my own.

Also to my advantage, the tour started out with only seven people and the crowd only swelled to 14 after others joined us a couple of days later.

The first day, we saw the Zaanse Schans Open-Air Museum, Edam and the Zuiderzee Museum. We spent the night in the forest near Arnhem at a luxury hotel.

The second day, a museum lover like me was pleased that we got to see the Kroller-Muller Museum in the national park and then went on to spend time in Gouda seeing the lovely stained glass in the St. Jans Church. At the Hague we saw government buildings and then spent the night in Scheveningen on the North Sea. It was bitter cold and windy, but I had a walk on the shore.

The third day, we saw flood control projects and then took a canal ride in Bruges where we spent the night. On the fourth day we visited Ghent and then spent time at the Grand'Place in Brussels.

Three hours in one place can seem too long, so after seeing the Manneken Pis, the famous statue, I sought refuge in the Museum of the City of Brussels --not a great museum but right on the Grand'Place. Oftentimes on a tour I am caught with more time than I want in one place and a nearby museum makes a convenient place to rest.

Our last day, after an overnight in Brussels, was spent in Antwerp with our guide explaining the Rubens paintings in the cathedral.

Lunches on my own were tasty. I had French fries in Gouda (French fries with mayonnaise was a special Dutch treat). In Bruges I had coffee and a fresh-baked apple tart and in Brussels, of course, a Belgian waffle and later a small quiche. When I'm traveling on my own, I eat at a takeaway or a self-serve cafe.

Three of our four hotels had swimming pools, so in the evening I could take a swim before dinner. At the hotel near. Arnhem I was able to take a walk in the forest.

Haarlem outing

On Friday evening I was back on my own. I took the tram back to the kind lady who was furnishing me with a room. She was dressed in her very best because this day, May 5, was Liberation Day, marking the day in 1945 when the Allies liberated the Dutch from Nazi occupation.

I still had one day on my own before catching a flight back to the States. On Saturday I took the train to nearby Haarlem and spent the day seeing the Frans Hals Museum, the Teylers Museum and the enormous organ in the Church of St. Bavo. All these sights are within a brisk walk of each other and the train station.

Travel planning

Although I enjoy traveling with someone else, seeing the tulips was important enough to me that I wanted to go to Holland. Tulip time only happens once a year and a bargain trip to Holland some other time would not be the same. Traveling on my own in Holland proved to be a wonderful experience.

For Amsterdam I used "Fodor's City Pack Amsterdam" with information and an easy-to-carry map with tram lines marked on it.

I booked my B&B through Bed and Breakfast Holland, Theophile de Bockstraat 3, 1058 TV Amsterdam, Holland; phone 31-20 615 7527 or fax 31-20-669-1573.

Combined Holland Tour Operators C.V. can be booked through airlines. The company has 2-through 9-day tours.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Martin Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group