join the johnson journey: newsworthy netherlands

Last weekend, I caught a train from Bochum to Amsterdam and met up with Nick. We rented a car and headed out to Noordwijkerhout which is a city about 30 minutes southwest of Amsterdam. The sole purpose of the weekend was to see the flowers (mostly tulips) that are literally growing everywhere you turn. I will warn you before you go through all these pictures there are hundreds but they will quite literally take your breathe away. I have never seen so many rows and rows of gorgeous flowers before. The time that people take to groom them and care for them is insane. I hope you enjoy looking at these flowers as much as I did. I won't have much commentary in this blog as the pictures are enough :)

On Friday after we checked in at the hotel it was pretty late so we just hopped in the car and went over to the town for a quick bite to eat.

another i amsterdam sign at the airport

church lit up by night in the town

On Saturday morning we headed to Keukenhof bright and early and we were there when they opened. This is a garden dedicated to showcasing all types of flowers. They are so so so beautiful. We spent most of the morning and into lunch time there. We saw all types of flowers in beautiful, bright, bold colors. I won't even waste time trying to sum up this experience in words and I will just let each of you examine the pictures below. Take your time to look at just how gorgeous they are. After we finished up at Keukenhof we went into Lisse for some lunch. We ate at this cute cafe and the food was really good! We then headed back to the car and took a quick drive over the beach. It was freezing cold but nice to get to see some sand and the ocean. The terrain in the Netherlands is very interesting. They have some natural dunes around the beach and a nice national park all next to fields and field of flowers. Overall, you get to see a lot of different types of terrain and vegetation all within a 20 minute drive. We checked out the Zuid National Park next and got to see this gorgeous lake. We also saw some guy strip down and go swimming. I'd just like to point out that it was about 40 degrees at this point so the water had to have been freezing. He looked like he had done it before though so I guess he knew what was he doing...haha. I found the entire experience quite fascinating and... well weird! After the park we went to Haarlem and ate dinner at Jopen Brewery. It was super crowded but we were able to snag a seat and enjoy some good brews. Haarlem is a really nice town where I'm assuming all the rich people live that work in Amsterdam...all the houses were so cute and looked like they were straight out of a movie.

some of my favorites

love these multi-colored ones

obsessed with the ones with the white stripes

really cool "marble" looking ones

funkiest flower i've ever seen!

frilled flowers!

fields & fields of pink tulips. simply gorgeous.

the netherlands version of the ocean..

the dunes!

lake at the national park!

nick's national geographic tree... he may win a prize!

the lake at the national park

On Sunday, we hopped into the car and headed to The Hague, another city outside of Amsterdam. When we got there we immediately went to the Binnenhof, the parliament building for the Netherlands. It's a beautiful building that has a nice pond in front of it which lends itself to a nice picture. The weather was not too great on Sunday morning and it kept raining on and off but we were still able to walk around and see some of the sites that The Hague has to offer. We ate lunch at the place called Tosti van Josti which i HIGHLY recommend if you ever find yourself in The Hague. It was a yummy sandwich shop. There is a car museum called Louwman Museum located here that we of course had to check out (Nick's obsessed with cars!) I will say that I was actually quite impressed that I liked the car museum as well. It was very interesting. We got to see a lot of famous cars from movies and other cars that famous people used to own like Elvis Presley. All in all, I think I may be in love with The Netherlands. I find it a charming country that has so much to offer. Next stop though is our anniversary trip: Croatia, Greece, and Bosnia. Cannot wait!