Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2019 Europe w/Wayment’s - Day 08

April 5, 2019

Bremen...nice stop along our way. Such a cute town. Loved it here.

In order to meet the ‘check in’ demands of our host for tonight’s stay, we got up earlier than planned. The host was all over the place...first said we had to meet him by 3:30 PM. Then yesterday, said we could meet him by 1 PM or his friend by 3:30 PM. Neither worked out great. We decided to meet them at 1 PM. So we got on the road at around 8:30 AM.

The route we took purposefully took us through the area where my Great Grandmother was born. It says she was born in Groningen..at least in that area. Groningen is a pretty big town. Other ancestors lived and died near Tolbert and the area around. So we drove into Tolbert. What an amazing little town. Cute homes. A nice windmill. Pretty charming. It is interesting that part of me began over here.

From Tolbert, we headed further south to Muiden. We texted our host to let them know that we would be arriving around 12:15 PM. They now texted back that this was too early. Gosh...it’s certainly not like using a hotel with AIRBNB’s! You have to schedule with them and meet their schedule even though your’re the one on a timeline to see and do everything. We went ahead and showed up early and got the key. And Muiden is the most quaint town I’ve ever stayed in I believe. On a small canal, tiniest of streets and cute homes. We parked the car real close to where we were to stay and went for a walk looking for the castle. We came upon what was called MuidenForte...or something like that. It was a fort..but we wondered if it was the ‘castle’. We checked Google to see and it was not. It was a fort. Free to go in. We walked a bit further to see if we could see the Castle...and we could. But we hose to head into the little town by foot and grab some lunch.

Lunch was in a nice little eatery. Pretty expensive though. But what do you do. Definitely no McDonald’s here! The food was great. The young gal that waited on us spoke perfect English and she was raised in Muiden. She gave us lots of good info. After lunch, we went back and dumped our bags at the flat and then got in the car and headed south to the Tulip Fields....Lisse, Netherlands. There they have a botanical gardens where people come from all over the world. It is called Keukenhof. The fields were full of more cars than Tulips. Lots of people come here during this time of the year. But, we chose not to go into the gardens. We chose to be adventurous and rent bikes!

Bike Riding....well for both Kim and Denise it had been since childhood since they had risen a bike. I was a bit worried. But my worries were for naught as both did great although I think they gave Kim a bike that was a little short which made it difficult for him to ride. Once mounted, we started out on our journey. And ride we did...ride, ride, ride....except we forgot to take the first turn on the map. So along with seeing flower fields, we saw parts of a few towns. Finally, we recognized we were off course. We figured out that we had rode about 45 minutes the wrong way...and we were on the clock for a 3 hour ride. But, eventually we got back on the trail for our 15k bike ride. I figure we rode about 22k or so.

There were Daisy’s mostly and many other fields of gorgeous flowers. But all the Tulip fields were not in bloom quite yet. There were a few and they were all lovely. But I think in about 2 weeks, it would be amazingly stunning. Anyway, our bike ride lasted longer than we had expected. We ended up riding for about 2.5 or more hours. Denise and I pulled into the lot and handed in our bikes....but Kim and Ilene were no where to be seen. Great friends we are. Apparently they pulled off to attend to something that Kim needed and Denise and I just kept going unknowingly. Geez. We felt bad.

After our bike ride, we loaded up into the car and decided to go see the Netherlands Temple. It was a 40 minute drive to get there. And one of the 3 GPS’s we had going eventually got us there! :-). The temple and grounds was beautiful as expected. It is a smaller temple on a smaller lot. And I think to park there, you have to go under the temple...probably by the baptismal font! (Just kidding.). We took some pictures and then decided to go find some dinner. As we started to drive out, we turned on our GPS’s to see eateries near us. There were a ton within walking distance. So we drove over a little bridge and parked in a small lot. We got out, and walked and found a steak house...56 Steaks...or something like that. We went in. For the first time, the language on the menu and of the people was a real challenge. Figuring out what to order required Google Translator and a couple of people trying their English on us. We finally ordered something. Then I noticed in the Parking lot outside the restaurant parking machines! Paid parking. My Scotland experience kicked in and I told the group I must move my car and find where to pay for parking. So up and out I went. it did not take long to find my way around the block and back into the parking lot by the restaurant. And a very nice, english speaking, fellow helped me with the machine. I then hurried back to the restaurant. The food was great. Portions...way big. Too much to eat. We all had a very tasty dinner.

After dinner...we had a 50 minute drive back to Muiden. It went well. We were back by 9 PM and everyone...except me...headed to bed. But now....off I am. I’m beat....really tired. I will need a vacation from my vacation. But what is new! We’re having a lot of fun!

Pictures:

Happy Bike Riders...