We had planned on getting up early again, but lazily didn't get started for a couple hours after planned. Getting out of Leiden was much easier this time, but we rather quickly found it again hard to stick on the right path. Oddly enough; there are simply so many bike paths, you never really know which one to follow. That said, the distances are small enough that you never got very far before you realized you were off and there was often another bike trail nearby to right you so you didn't ever really have to turn around. It ended up being an interesting, if sinuous sequence of paths along train tracks, through neighborhoods, villages, and out in flower fields, simply perfect and different from the way out to keep things interesting.
Keukenhof was a zoo. Tens of tour buses and fleets of cars backing up the road for 1 mile. It was pretty cool, although I don't know if I would have considered it worth while in terms of cost 5 years ago. The Dutch certainly know gardening though. Each flower bed was manicured to a "T" and it was stunning how many varieties and color combinations they could form.
After dumping the bikes back in Harlaam, we wandered downtown through their narrow medieval streets. These have a different feel than Leiden or Amsterdam; less canals and more Bari Gotic of Barcelona, radiating out from a massive church at the "center". We final settled (somewhat randomly) on a cafe and ordered it up. The smoke salmon sandwich was outstanding. Kate was quite satisfied with her food as well. Maybe it's just vacation, but it just seems like most meals are awesome here.
After the quick train ride back, I hit up another run to the park. A little monotonous, but it's at least a couple miles around it and dirt. We hit the streets again around happy hour, content to meander around the canals and various neighborhoods. We again randomly settled on a good looking pub for a couple drinks and a massive cheese plate. The dubbel I had was one of the better beers of the trip thus far. The cheese didn't disappoint either.
Dinner was the fanciest of the trip yet; The Blue Spoon. Good food, if not huge portions and a little pricy. Worth it at least once or twice on the vacation though. It was still a little early when we finished, so we walked some of the Pijp and found another cafe with a couple desserts; cheese cake and a brownie that was really flourless cake. Both were good and while I probably could have gone without the hot chocolate, it was also amazing. So basically, another story of food that I was happy with. I like eating?
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