Hunting For Flowers

On Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early, packed the kids' bikes in the car and headed to the Netherlands in search of fields of flowers.  Before we left the States, we were invited by the other Tekelec family living in Brussels to go to Lisse, Netherlands for a day of bike riding around the flower fields.  This area of the Netherlands is one of the largest producers of flowers in the world! 

For those geographically impaired, like myself, I provided a map above.  Lisse is located approximately 30 km southwest of Amsterdam.

I knew the kids would love to ride their bikes, and I was curious to see how Jason and I would do.  Neither of us has riden a bike in about a decade!!  After about two and a half hours in the car, we reached our destination and it was time to try out the bikes. 

Not too bad for my first time on a bike in 10 years, and a baby attached to the back!  Ethan and Jenna both received new bikes just before we left the US as they had both outgrown their old ones. 

Despite the impending threat of volcanic ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland that disrputed air traffic all through Europe for 6 days, we had a beautiful day as you can see from the picture above!  It was a bit cool, but that kept us moving. 

The picture above is a view of our group, the entire string of people in the picture above.  We were comprised of four families, totalling 16 people - 8 of which were children. 

Jenna and Ethan were the only children to pedal their own bikes.  All the others were younger and riding along with a parent.  Jenna took off like a pro and lead the pack for the day.  It was a long haul for our Ethan.  We ended up biking for close to 4 hours and he pushed his legs the whole way!  We were so proud of him.  You can see from the picture above that we held up the back of the pack for the day, but at least it was beautiful scenery!

After about an hour and a half of biking, we stopped in a town and grabbed lunch and ice cream.  Nothing replenishes you for a bike ride, like a good chocolate dipped cone! Right, Ethan?

We hopped back on the bikes and rode for another 45 minutes.  Along the way, we spied house boats, canals, a friendly minature pony, big wooly sheet, and lots of bikes! 

It is amazing to see the number of bikes and the thoughtful infrastructure to allow the people of the Netherlands to bike so much.  We were typically able to stay in bike paths, even on busy roads.  The drivers in vehicles were typically patient when they needed to wait for a proper time to pass, and to yeild to bikers to cross streets.  Jason and I commented several times how encouraging it was to see people who appeared to be in their 70's at least, out biking on a Saturday and enjoying the sunny day!  What a life!

Once again, we were all in need of a break, so we found a grassy spot and the children enjoyed some time gathering sticks, flowers, rocks - everything kids love about nature! 

As it was approaching 5:00 p.m., we were only a few minutes from returning to our vehicles and we found some of the most beautiful fields we saw all day.  I will finish the post with the pictures from our time in that flower field and also several other shots that we saw throughout the day.

We are excited for a return trip to the Netherlands.  The people were very friendly.  There is also a massive flower garden near by called Kuekenhof.  It boasts over 4.5 million tulips and claims to be the most photographed place in the world.  It is a bit pricey to visit, so we decided maybe they kids would appreciate it a bit more next year. 

Family photo kindly taken by our friend Karen!