It had to happen sometimes. Or rather I hoped it would even though I did not suspect it would take a war to pull it off. For the last two years I have been making short trips to the Netherlands and little by little I was getting to know it during all its seasons. I can confirm that August is a much better time to visit than November, unless you are interested in Rembrandt and van Gogh, in which case November might be better, because you will actually get to see the paintings rather than seeing the backs of lot of other people. But I really wanted to make a trip during the tulip season. This year it looked promising, we were going to have a meeting in the spring. When the meeting was announced and I made some inquiries I thought "I missed it again!". Beginning of March is too soon. But then the war in the Gulf started, there were all kinds of travel restrictions and the meeting got postponed to the end of April. Perfect timing!

(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) The plane landed around noon on Easter Monday. I had the rest of the day off and since it was sunny I did not want to take any chances and headed off to Keukenhof immediately. Keukenhof is a large park few kilometers north of Leiden, dedicated to flowers and is opened for only two months, from the last week of March to the middle of May. Actually already the bus trip from Leiden was worth it, because we were passing by field after field in full bloom. But if you like tulips Keukenhof is a must. No matter how much memory you have in your camera you will run out! Of course, tulips were not the only flowers in bloom, but the one that really caught my attention was Fritilaria imperialis. I think I will try to grow some next year.

As it happened this was one of my longer trips and it included a weekend, during which the weather reverted back to its more normal Dutch pattern: cool, windy and wet. Even so I was able to fill in some sightseeing gaps. I went to Delft, which I had visited for about an hour in December few years ago. It is a lot nicer during daylight even though the rain put a bit of a damper on things. I also found out about a boat tour of the lakes and canals between Katwijk and Warmund and finally got to see enough windmills to last me for the rest of my life.

Even though I put in 10 hours every day, late spring in northern Europe means daylight until nine o'clock and so I was able to see more of Leiden as well. Leiden is a charming little university town with a rather impressive history of which I was blissfully ignorant until this last trip. City of Rembrandt, Leuvenhoek (the inventor of microscope), famous medical school and also the city from which Mayflower sailed to America with the first settlers. I almost got one extra day off. The first indication was when I saw the Leiden wind-mill museum draped in the Dutch flag. It turns out that the last day of April is the queen's birthday, a national holiday, traditionally a huge flee market and an opportunity to dye you hair orange. Well, if you have seen any of my recent pictures you will realize I could not easily participate in this charming custom and so I arranged to work through her birthday. Sorry.

At the end it was nice to return to the moist warm subtropical Houston. I am not a cold weather person. Tree frogs are out in full force already even though the lack of rain this spring means that the mosquito population is extremely low and I can eat Sunday breakfast outside without getting eaten alive. And we have our own little adventures as well. The other day we took a drive to the beach, but this time, rather than heading directly south to Galveston or southwest to Freeport, we went east and then south to High Island. From there it is possible to take a free ferry from Bolivar to Galveston and complete the loop by going north after stopping at Kemah for supper. The High Island beach was almost deserted and much coarser than at Galveston. We spent an hour or two wondering up and down the beach collecting shells but were completely unprepared for what I almost literally stumbled on. A sleepy 1.5 m alligator. And we used to think that around here, sharks were the only thing with jaws!









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