Day 6: Amersfoort & Keukenhof Gardens (Lisse, Netherlands)We left our AirBnB in Dinslaken an

Day 6: Amersfoort & Keukenhof Gardens (Lisse, Netherlands)

We left our AirBnB in Dinslaken and made our way to the Netherlands. We were scheduled to check into our next place after 2PM, so we decided to stop in the city of Amersfoort, just outside of Amsterdam. Amersfoort was founded over 750 years ago, which makes cities in the U.S. seem so young…! The city has a system of canals and a gate called the Koppelpoort, which is a medieval gate that was built around the 15th century. 

It was a bright sunny day, but it was really chilly with a brisk wind. The whole family was bundled up as we strolled the streets. Amersfoort was one of those places that we didn’t put on our itinerary, but it was a great place to stumble upon. The city was fairly empty, and we even joked that it felt like a ghost town. We stopped in one of the town squares that was surrounded by plenty of cafes and restaurants with chairs and tables everywhere. But there was no one in the square. It felt like a ghost town… Maybe it was too early or too cold for people to go out?

We spent a few hours walking around and then made our way to the town of Houten, where there were these rainbow houses my brother really wanted to photograph. It was a nice little area, with river homes that were red, yellow, blue and green. We then made our way to our lake house AirBnB, where we relaxed for a bit and then found some food and snacks to hold us over until dinner. We stopped at this place called Snackbar Van Dijk and split a shoarmaro, which in this case was an eggroll that was filled with curried shawarma meat. I’m not sure what kind of meat was in this thing, maybe lamb or beef? But it was really good! My parents stopped at a grocery store and got some baguettes and deli meats for a sandwich. I shared in some of that and ate a pasta salad thing as well as we made our way to Lisse and the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens. 

We timed our arrival to Keukenhof to be in the late afternoon because the crowds start dwindling pretty quickly, giving us more of the garden to ourselves :) 

When stepped foot through the entrance, I knew that this place was crazy special. My mom, who loves flowers, was in her own happy world. She was taking pictures left and right and just in awe and even overwhelmed by the beauty. My brother and I made our way around the garden, taking as many cool shots of tulips and other flowers as we could. There are many ways to take pictures of tulips… I mean.. a lot. And when you’re presented with probably thousands of different tulip species, you kind of just go crazy trying to take so many pictures. We took a few family photos at Keukenhof, including our annual Phan Family Christmas photos. Since all four of us aren’t in the same place for Christmas, we have to be strategic and plan our Christmas photos well ahead of the holiday to ensure we have an updated photo! 

After spending about 4 hours at Keukenhof and taking advantage of the soft light, we headed back towards our AirBnB. We decided to got a Dutch restaurant that our host suggested to us, and this ended up being one of the best meals of the entire trip. The restaurant was called Bar-Bistro ‘t Bruggetje, and it’s a hit with the locals in the Amsterdam Lake District. We looked at the menu, but it was all in Dutch. We tried to figure out what we wanted, but it was impossible. Our waitress gave us the WiFi password so we could translate the menu into English, and so we then ordered our food. In addition to two Amstel beers, we also ordered Sate van Varkenshaas (Pork with Peanut Sauce), Gebakken Zalm (Fried Salmon), and a Mushroom Tartelette, served with some potatoes, salad, and fries on the side. Everything was soooo good. Like, wow. maybe it was because we were all starving, but everything was delicious. And being that this place was a local spot, it felt really authentic and like we were part of the local community. 

After dinner, we made our way back to our lodging and got some zzz’s.