Amsterdam Day Trip: Windmills & Tulips

On our last day in Amsterdam my husband and I decided to get out of the city to see some windmills & tulips. I know how incredibly cliche this sounds but I don’t care one bit! It was on the top of my Netherlands bucket list and gosh darn-it I was going to go do it! To make logistics a bit easier for us we decided to do an all-day brutal 11-hour guided tour…in the end that was not our cup of tea but it was an overall gorgeous (and sunny!) day.

Our bus ride was broken up into two major chucks: the morning was a windmill/countryside tour and we switched around noon to go to Keukenhof, the most famous tulip garden in the world.

Windmills

Our first stop for windmills was Zaanse Schans, a little neighborhood with a few working windmills. Most of the group went inside to learn about the inner workings of windmills while Will and I walked around the town taking photos and enjoying the rare sunny Netherlandish sunshine.

Volendam & Marken

After the windmills, we got shuttled off to Volendam to learn about traditional Dutch cheese and wooden shoe making. Although informational, mass tour guide lectures aren’t our thing and we kinda just wandered around

After lunch we hopped on a ferry to Marken, which remarkably looked like Cape Cod, then hopped on the bus for part 2…the tulips!

Keukenhof Gardens

This tulip garden is actually opened from March until May and we happened to be there on the first day they were opened this year! I was so excited. Now, it was a bit early in the tulip season so we didn’t get to see the garden in “full” bloom but there was plenty to see and the greenhouse had absolutely gorgeous variety. Every row we walked up was something new. Just enjoy the photos below!

JMF