welsh hills again

So how was Leiden?  Beautiful, a mini Amsterdam with canals and bridges and bikes. It is a university town with something of the same feel as Cambridge, but with canals! The place we stayed in was a real find, an apartment on the Nieuwe Rijn.  Ours was not the one pictured on this website but had two bedrooms, a fabulous bathroom and a small sitting area within the larger bedroom overlooking the canal.  Everything was spotless and comfortable, the bathroom was to die for and our host, Leon, made us wonderful breakfasts in the spacious kitchen overlooking a terrace.  Brilliantly situated, beautifully furnished and cared for and really nice people.  If you can get to Leiden I would really recommend it. We rented bikes from our hosts and, having not ridden a bike for about twenty five years, I tested the cliche that you never forget and found it to be true. The Keukenhof gardens were amazing,  not a garden in the ordinary sense o...

I am feeling excited, very excited.  I love tulips and have grown them in pots and in the ground here every year since we came over nine years ago.  On a cold grey February morning I was having a cup of tea with a friend and we got to talking about the bulb fields in the Netherlands and the gardens at Keukenhof .  My friend used to live in Leiden, right on the doorstep of all of this.  I confessed I had always wanted to go.  "Well we should, of course we should.  We should go this spring.  Let's look at flights.." and in half an hour we were booked with flights and accommodation.  Ian was happy to hold the fort here and with my dad.  For weeks it felt a bit pretend.  But it is here, now, today.  This afternoon we fly to Amsterdam. Will it really look like this? Or this? Or this? These images are all from holland.com  but I will come back with some of my own. This is exactly the sort of visiting I love.  ...