The Netherlands April 2026 - Tulips!!

We planned the trip in April so we could see the tulip fields and the Keukenhof Gardens. I actually bought tickets for two separate days since the weather report was constantly changing before we left home.  We stayed in Haarlem as we had been to Amsterdam once before and wanted a quieter, less busy alternative. Haarlem was a great choice with things to see in the town as well as good proximity to the Keukenhof gardens. 

The first thing that hit us when we entered was the scent! The hyacinths were blooming and the smell was incredible. Tulips don't really have much of a scent but with thousands of them blooming I would say I could smell them as well. There were so many lovely beds of flowers and the place is huge. There is a lake, a windmill, a viewing platform over the nearby fields, and a boat ride to take if you like. The tulip beds are a combination of some that are just one type or one color and then there are beds of happy mixes of various types of tulips and other flowers. There are fountains and even a maze as well. There were various sculptures scattered about but not so many that they detracted in any way from the flowers. There are 79 acres of gardens so the place is truly huge, be sure to get one of the little maps when you enter as it will save you some backtracking. We started by seeing everything on the outermost paths and then working our way to the inner paths. I would say it might have been better to start with the innermost paths as those tend to be busier as the day goes on. There are lots of benches scattered about so you can sit and relax and just enjoy the beauty. Mike said it was so much better than he was expecting and he really enjoyed it. Of course I was thrilled because I'm very happy to be in a garden anytime, anywhere. I have many, many beautiful photos of this place, I'll share a few later. 

There are buildings scattered about the gardens that have floral displays, and a huge one where you can ask questions of their experts and also see samples of the various tulips. There are a few restaurants and also some food trucks so you have some dining choices if you don't want to pack a lunch.  They are a cashless business so card only and also no dairy-free milk options in the restaurants.  No cappuccino for me *sigh*.

There is also a playground and picnic tables so it's a family friendly place - as long as you can keep your children from picking the flowers! It's all paved too so it's stroller friendly and wheelchair friendly if you have older or less mobile family members. They rent wheelchairs at the garden but I believe you need to reserve them in advance. I'm not 100% sure about that since we didn't need one.

The tickets for Keukenhof are a timed entry system though you can stay as long as you want once you're inside. They do not allow you to leave and then come back in, so if you wanted to bring a picnic lunch you have to bring it in with you at the beginning. We brought along a small backpack so we had someplace to put jackets when it warmed up later in the morning. Our entry was at 9am on April 9th and we parked in the P2 parking lot which is the secondary entrance to the gardens. On our second visit we parked in P1 on April 22 and that main entry gate was definitely busier, although the whole place was busier that day than on our first visit. The only difference in the garden's appearance from one date to the next was that the daffodils were pretty much done by the second visit but the azaleas and rhododendrons were blooming so I'm not sure I would say one was date was definitely better than the other. The weather was decently warm on our first visit though it was a bit overcast. It turns out that the overcast day produced better flower photos because the sun on our second visit created a lot of shadows on the flowers from the trees. They had quite a few flowering Japaneses Cherry trees which were absolutely lovely. 

While we didn't order any bulbs directly from Keukenhof due to the shipping costs, we did make note of our favorites and ordered some from a different source when we returned home. The sad part is that tulips are considered an annual where we live (California zone 9) and it's not cold enough in the winter for a bloom the second year. I'll have to refrigerate the bulbs for several weeks before planting and then dig them up after the plant dies and find a cool, dry place to store them until the next fall when I'll repeat the refrigeration process again and hope for a some blooms. 

I would very much recommend a visit here if you're in The Netherlands during tulip season!

The Netherlands and Belgium April 2026

 We're back! I have a lot of information to share, including some info about using the new EES system (Entry Exit System) in the EU. I'll talk about that first for the people who will encounter that process soon. 

When we arrived in Amsterdam we were directed to kiosks to register for the EES system which involved scanning your passport (upside down and backwards), a photo without glasses, and a scan of the 4 fingers on your right hand. Mike of course was done in a jiffy but the scanner had a hard time with my fingerprints. It finally said I had successfully completed the process and we moved on to the passport control area.  There was a separate line for those who completed the registration process at the kiosk and, once again, Mike sailed right through (after answering four short questions on the scanner). The scanner unfortunately could not read my fingerprints again, even after multiple attempts, so I was sent off to the passport check line to see an immigration officer. This added about 45 minutes and even gave Mike enough time to walk down to the baggage claim and get our bags and then return to wait for me. 

I was talking to three other women in line and we decide that the scanner had a hard time reading our fingerprints because two of us worked in healthcare and spent years washing our hands multiple times a day and all of us had wished millions of dishes in our lifetime. I don't know if that was the real cause or not, but it gave us something to do while waiting in the line. When I finally reached the immigration officer he re-scanned my passport, took another photo and re-scanned my fingerprints. I had put on some hand lotion before reaching him so my hands were better hydrated, so try that if you have trouble with the system reading your fingerprints.  I was finally given the permission to go through and Mike and I headed to the rental car desk. The rental car was another time-consuming issue, but more about that in another post. 

When we left The Netherlands to fly home, I was dreading going through the EES system again and we had heard the horror stories of lines that were hours long at various airports. We arrived at the airport at 6:50 am for a 10:50 flight. Since we were flying first class, we were able to use the Delta Sky Priority lines to check-in and drop our bags which went quite quickly. The next stop was the security checkpoint. Schiphol Airport has an app where you can make an appointment for a 15 minute time slot to use a shorter security line. We  learned about that from talking to the Sheraton hotel staff at the airport. I had booked a 7:30 time slot but it was 7:10 at that point. The airport wasn't busy so the officer let us go ahead even though we were early. This put us in a line for the X-ray scanner that was shorter than the other lines, although the other lines were not super busy that early. Once through the X-ray scanner process, we moved on to the passport control area and luckily the scanner only required our passports and it took another photo- no fingerprints needed - hooray! So we were through the entire process in about an hour. I will say that the airport was significantly busier by 9am and the priority lines and time slot appt were definitely helpful. 

Our first stop upon returning to the USA was at Salt Lake City. We both have Global Entry for customs but I recently found out that Global Entry has an app where you can answer the customs questions ahead of time and snap a photo of yourself. When you land, you submit that information and the app gives you a receipt for a one hour time slot to go through customs in the Global Entry line but you do not stop at the kiosk first, you proceed directly to the customs officer with your receipt. You can include everyone traveling with you so you can go up together instead of separately. I feel that's very helpful because there aren't always enough kiosks and you can still get stuck in line waiting for one. We also had nothing to declare so that makes it easier as well. 

The Netherlands and Belgium for tulip time!

We are getting ready for a new trip in a couple of weeks! We're heading to the Netherlands and Belgium to see tulip fields, some picturesque villages and a couple of WWII sites.  This is probably the least amount of time I've ever had to plan a European trip, I normally research the destination for months and make a detailed plan with options and alternatives, etc. This time I don't even have the last three days booked for accommodations, we're going to see where we end up and then find a place. This is not my usual style but we may want to spend additional time somewhere and this gives us the freedom to do that. It all came about because Delta Airlines gave us e-credit vouchers for some flight changes that occurred on our last trip and the vouchers had to be used by the end of 2025 so we scrambled to decide where we wanted to go next. It did save us about $4500 though so that was awesome!

We have previously been to Amsterdam so we don't have much planned to see there, though I do want to visit the Rijksmuseum this time.  We will be going to the Keukenhof gardens and Kinderdijk and I'm hoping to get some nice photos of flowers and windmills. In Belgium we will visit Ghent, Bruges, Brussels, Dinant, and Bastogne. We're also making a day trip to Trier, Germany to see the Roman ruins there.  I'm not sure where we'll go after that but we talked about visiting Maastricht as well. 

I booked walking tours of Ghent, Bruges, and Brussels with a company I haven't used before but I've read many good reviews for them. The company is called WithLocals and you can choose your tour, the length and the private guide. The guides post a little info about themselves on the website so you can find one that suits your style/interests. I'm anxious to see how that goes. Hopefully we get great guides and learn a lot!

A dinner with friends and an (unplanned) extra day

We arrived back in Zurich in time to meet up with some friends for dinner. We had returned our rental car so we took the train from the airport to the main train station in Zurich. We had the SBB app and the Half Fare card which were easy to use and we managed the train journey just fine. Our problem was in figuring out where our friends' hotel was located in relation to the station, but we soon had it figured out and were able to enjoy dinner with them.  

We returned to our hotel, the Radisson Blu at the airport, to figure out our strategy for the following day. We did not realize until 48 hours before the flight that the airline had changed our flight to one day later than I had orignially booked. In looking back through their emails to me about flight changes and layover changes, I did eventually find the email that mentioned other changes including the additional day. I called the airline reservations line and the young man was very nice but couldn't get us conveniently rebooked to where we needed to go on such short notice. Sooo we had an extra day. We have been to Zurich previously so we wanted to do something outside the city. We finally decided to take a bus tour to the Rheinfalls and the village of Stein am Rhein.

 The next morning we took the train to the city again and tried to orient ourselves more successfully than the day before. We had to ask for help from a young man in the ticket office who gave us directions to the tour bus area. I have to admit that I had put the falls on my "B" list of things to see, but the sheer volume of water going over the falls was pretty impressive. Even though the falls are not high, the volume and force of the water make up for it. We walked up and down the stairs to the various viewing platforms and even had time for a quick beverage before boarding the bus again. 

The medeival village of Stein am Rhein was next on the tour. This is a charming village with lots of half-timbered houses and beautiful wall painting on the exterior of the buildings. Our tour guide pointed out some of the details of various buildings and then let us explore on our own. We wandered about looking at all the shops and buildings before stopping at Il Gelato. Our tour guide said it was the best gelato in town and one look told me the banana gelato was handmade. The owner said he makes it himself from fresh bananas. I could tell it was handmade because it wasn't yellow, but kind of a gray/beige and if you look closely you can see the tiny black seeds. A tour guide in Rome gave me that tip years ago. My husband and I took our gelato to a bench by the river to relax and enjoy the view before boarding the bus for our return to Zurich. We packed our bags and got everything ready for our flight the next day.

 The next morning we walked the 2 minutes to the terminal from our hotel (so convenient) and went to check in and drop our bags. The Zurich airport is unlike other airports I have been to, as the airlines share check in desks and remove their signage at the end of their shift and then replace it when they arrive the next day. In the meantime, other airlines take over that desk and put up their signage. Maybe this happens in other airports but this was the first time I had seen it done. So we arrived at Check-in 2, level 2, row 1 which is exactly where Delta check-in should have been, but the only desks were Singapore Air and Qatar Air! Eventually other travelers arrived for check-in with Delta but the desk agents didn't arrive and start checking people in until almost 2 hours before the flight. We still had to go through security and another passport check so we felt a bit rushed at this point in spite of arriving early. 

Our flight was delayed taking off by 20 minutes which left us 1-1/2 hours to deplane, go through customs and make it to our gate at JFK airport. The customs area at JFK was jammed full of people. We have Global Entry but only one person was working that line so it still took a while to get through. We made it to our gate just as the plane was boarding. We had one more connecting flight in order to get home so we couldn't miss our plane in New York or we'd be spending the night in Utah and trying to get home the next day.  That would have added two extra days to the trip and my husband had to work, so we had to make that next connection. Finally we landed at our home airport at 12:30am, found our car in the parking garage where our kids had left it, and headed home to finally fall into bed. 

Hohenzollern photos

Hohenzollern Castle

Long passageway to entrance

Ornate brass chalice

Interior room

Exterior

Hohenzollern Castle

I have often seen beautiful photos of Hohenzollern perched high on a hill, looking so impressive and large. Once I realized that Hohenzollern was not far from Zurich it was immediately on my list of places to see on this trip. We made the trip from Colmar, crossing the German border and arriving early in the afternoon. The castle is the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family, which produced the kings of Prussia and the German emporers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It fell into ruin and was restored in the 19th century. 

 There is a long covered passageway as you make your way up to the castle itself - quite an impressive entrance. Once you reach the castle complex you have the choice of entering the interior rooms, the church, the restaurant and gift shop, or walking the walls of the outer bastions. We opted to visit the interior rooms first as it was raining off and on and was quite chilly. We saw many rooms which had beautiful ceilings, paintings, and sculpture as well as antiques and artifacts. I think our favorite was a large brass piece. It was highly decorated and we could not figure out its function. We thought perhaps a timepiece or a music box but we sought out one of the staff and she said it was a chalice. She didn't think it had ever been used but was a symbol of the family's wealth and power. 

 We visited the churches and then continued on to the walls surrounding the castle. Unfortunately for us,the rain and clouds obscured much of the view but there were statues to see of the Prussian kings and the German emporers. After our time outside we were cold and hungry so we decided to have a somewhat early dinner in the castle restaurant. My husband opted for a burger and I ordered a chicken dish. My husband said his burger was good and my chicken breast was deliciously seasoned and moist. We shared an apple strudel for dessert and returned to our car for the drive to Tubingen where we would stay the night. We stopped at a turnout on the road and managed to get a photo of the castle as the clouds had finally lifted a bit.

Colmar and Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg photos

La Maison des Tetes

Little Venice

Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg