Polaroid Mondays: Dutch Bucket List (The Tulip Fields)

Stop and smell the TULIPS. √

Today, June 1, marks our third-year anniversary in Amsterdam. We're leaving soon (sniff, sniff), and even though we've explored The Netherlands extensively, our bucket list is still rather long.

It seems like the term 'bucket list' has suffered from a bad image lately, criticized because people fill up their buckets with all the things they'd like to do and then never do any them. I understand this point of view, although for the most part I think I'm pretty good at seizing opportunities to fulfill my life wishes. Off the top of my head, I think my novel is the one BIG thing I haven't competed yet, which is probably because I'm too busy doing the other things on my list, but that's a topic for another time.

For now, I'm focused on my Dutch bucket list. The whole family has items on this wish-list, kids included, and I plan to post once a day as we check things off. Some of our wishes are simply that, a desire to check something off. On the other hand, some of our wishes aren't even concrete but are much more meaningful, such as a desire to relive an experience or conjure up a feeling that reminds us of Holland. Some of our wishes are to do something for a second or third time. We'll see. I don't think we know the full scale of this list, as I'm sure the list will beget a more extensive list.

Bicycling through the tulips is a quintessential Dutch experience, and admittedly I have ~~a small obsession~~ a few tulip souvenirs--my favorite of which is this vase. The window to do this is brief, a six week period in the spring while the tulips are in bloom. I've done it once before, with two amazing women I had the joy of sharing two of my three years here in the Netherlands, and it was high time to come back with the family. So, just days before leaving for Morocco, we got out and did it (poor DS even had to fly back to NYC that day, only to turn around three days later and fly to North Africa . . . .crazy!).

We logged a 4 hour loop, first through the fields, then out to the North Sea dunes for a picnic lunch, and finishing at the ever-so popular Keukenhof Gardens.

Windy wind. Unless we were on them, our bikes spent much of the day like this:

In the middle of the tulip fields, one stumbles upon Keukenhof Gardens--a formal showcase of tulips and other seasonal flowers, which is only open in April and May. It's a big tourist destination, for good reason. The park is a delight of gardens, cafés, playgrounds, and windmills. Each year they center their creative gardening efforts around a theme, and this year was the Dutch Golden Age.

I just love these Amsterdam houses and canals. Holy crocus.