Hey everybody! I've got a big trip to fill you all in on! The beginning was kind of a mess, but we ended up having a great time.
As per tradition, we knew that we were going to Europe in May...it was just a matter of finding affordable airfare which was much more difficult this year than it has been in the past. We paid $300 per ticket to get to Europe the first time we ever went and deals like that just don't exist anymore. Back in February, I found a decent flight to Luxembourg but Brian was navigating a dumpster fire at work and was feeling really overwhelmed, so he decided that he was going to sit this year out to get everything at the office handled. That left me with the option to either stay home this year or go by myself, and you know that I wasn't going to stay home, so I bought myself a ticket and started ironing out an itinerary. Then, literally like, two weeks before I was supposed to leave, he decided to join me...after all, it's tradition :)
Of course, the flight that I was on was no longer available, so we started looking at other places that he could fly into that would be close by and then we would just meet up over there. He ended up finding a flight to Frankfurt that lined up pretty closely with my flight and he could use his miles to get it for like, $60.00. The morning we left, his parents dropped us both off and we split up in the International Terminal...his flight left 30 minutes before mine. The plan was that he would land in Frankfurt 5 hours before I landed in Luxembourg and then catch a 4 hour train to Luxembourg where we'd meet and then we'd pick up our rental car and drive to Ranst, Belgium for the night.
He landed right on time in Frankfurt but couldn't take the train and had to Uber 3 hours to Luxembourg. Meanwhile, my 11 hour flight was delayed out of Houston 1 hour (British Airways assured us MULTIPLE times that they'd make up the difference in the air and promised that it wouldn't affect any of our connections) which caused a domino effect where I'd miss my connection in London, so they just took it upon themselves to rebook me to the next flight to Luxembourg while still 6 hours from landing...NINE HOURS later than the original flight. So I was stuck on the plane with no option of finding other flights or communication with Brian, just waiting to land in London and hit the ground running. The attendant told me to go right to a customer rep when we landed and see what other options I had. So, I landed and walked down this long hallway to a train to different terminals. I didn't have a ticket yet for the later flight, so I wasn't sure which terminal I needed to go to, so I just hopped on the train with the rest of my flight and got off when they all got off. Then I had the idea to just book a cheap EU flight and get there ASAP, but I couldn't figure out which terminal I needed to be in and the flight that I found departed in 45 minutes...I was just worried that I wouldn't make it in time. I didn't know if they'd make me check my backpack and I wouldn't be able to do that at the gate, so I'd have to do it in the Departures terminal, which I didn't have time to get to. So I went back to trying to find a British Airways customer service desk and every employee that I asked sent me in a different direction. Finally, an hour later, I got to a security checkpoint that looked promising and I asked the employee there if she knew where I could find somebody to help me and she said, "Right on the other side of security you'll find an office that can help you out". So I proceeded to the security checkpoint but couldn't go through without a ticket, which I didn't have. I tried to show them my original ticket for the original flight that I missed, but because it was after the departure time, they wouldn't let me use it. So, I set off again, tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat...and eventually got to the Departures terminal. Luckily, I had the option of flying into a couple of different airports without having to pay any difference (Frankfurt, Amsterdam, or Brussels) which saved my butt and we settled on a flight to Brussels with an arrival time of 7:10 pm. I landed in London at 7:00 am and should have been in Luxembourg by 9:25 am. I still had to burn through 7 hours in London Heathrow with the $10 beverage voucher I got from the airline. It worked out nicely though, because Brian got our rental car in Luxembourg and drove 3 hours up to Brussels to pick me up and then we drove an hour to Ranst, where I'd booked our bed and breakfast for the night. It was a long day for everybody involved.
Our room was in a centuries old barn in the countryside where it stays light until 11:00 pm. We settled in, took a shower and slept harder than we'd ever slept before.
The next morning we enjoyed a huge breakfast downstairs with a German Engineering student that was staying there for 3 months while studying. Then we packed up and hit throe road north for something I was super excited about - the Keukenfhof Gardens! This is likely to be one of the most colorful posts I've ever made. When I'd initially bought my ticket to Luxembourg and thought that I'd be traveling alone, I knew that this would be my chance to explore the world renowned tulips of the Holland. Usually, we head to Europe later on in May and the tulips would be finished for the season, but I scheduled my trip for the beginning of May so I could see them before they were done. I'd secured our tickets a few days in advance knowing that it was only open a couple more days, the weather was going to be perfect, and that was going to be slammed. You have to book a certain time slot, so I contacted our bed and breakfast host and asked what the earliest time was that we could have breakfast and then went from there. Luckily, jetlag worked in our favor and we got up bright and early, even after a late night. We arrived at Keukenhof about 30 minutes early and were able to walk right in before the crowds showed up. It was spectacular!
This is the largest flower garden in the world! As incredible as the 7 million bulbs are, I loved the setting just as much. There were thousands and thousands of people there, but it was actually really peaceful and the light glistening through the trees was so beautiful. It's absolutely massive, so there was a lot to explore. There are many different varieties of flowers and bulbs including over 800 different kinds of tulips. There were even cafes within the park with apple strudel, ice cream, and cappuccinos which was nice considering we were there for several hours. It was sunny and 65 degrees and just perfection. It was nice too because, in an otherwise jam-packed itinerary, I'd allotted an entire day to just enjoy this one site, so we weren't rushed at all and just took our time and soaked it all up.
These massive red tulips with fringed petals were probably my favorite...probably because they reminded me of oriental poppies <3
