{"id":4530,"date":"2016-04-17T03:42:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T17:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:10:15","slug":"the-scent-of-hyacinths-in-the-morning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/2016\/04\/17\/the-scent-of-hyacinths-in-the-morning\/","title":{"rendered":"The Scent Of Hyacinths In The Morning\u2026."},"content":{"rendered":"

When you have nothing else to do, do something.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Windmill
Windmill near Noordwijkerhout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Four years ago we were campervan novices, but now we feel like seasoned veterans. That is until a policeman on a motorbike pulls you over and, rather dangerously, makes you back up the hard-shoulder of a freeway to the previous junction and asks you to follow him to a police control centre.\u00a0 Blimey, were we nervous and completely at a loss as to why he would have demanded this?\u00a0 Thankfully it turned out that we were picked at random for a spot check and all was well, so we re-joined the motorway north and headed for Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

Prior to our altercation with the Dutch police, we had enjoyed a perfectly flat, smooth and \u201care we moving?\u201d crossing of the English Channel. After landing at Dunkerque in France we joined the constant flow of traffic heading north.\u00a0 We have never before seen so many trucks in one day.\u00a0 The slow-lane seemed to be one continual line of chunky vehicles, for hours on end.\u00a0 Czech, Polish, Belgian, Dutch, British, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Irish, Romanian, French, Italian, German and Swedish trucks were all filling the motorways in all directions.\u00a0 We had to wonder how on earth all these laden transport vehicles will all move around, if the border controls get restored between the European countries.\u00a0 Everything will come to a standstill !!!<\/p>\n

We crossed into Belgium, and then around 3:45pm we crossed into the Netherlands\u2026\u2026. not a tulip in sight!!!! Not until we reached the area we were aiming for.\u00a0 We checked into camping Op Hoop Van Zagen in Noordwijkerhout; no I don\u2019t know how to pronounce any of that, but boy it sounds really silly when Rodney says it.\u00a0 I would now suggest to everyone that Antwerp, Rotterdam, Delft and The Hague should be avoided around late afternoon and the rush hour\u2026… we didn\u2019t.\u00a0 So with the police stopover and the horrible traffic, the journey from Dunkerque to the campsite took us all of 4 \u00be hours.\u00a0 Google said it would take us only 3 \u00bd hours.\u00a0 But finally, settled in the campsite, we are surrounded by fields of bulbs in various stages of flowering and the smell from the hyacinths drifting over to us, is delicious and cheering.<\/p>\n

\"Rows
Rows and rows of hyacinths near the campsite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC06948<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sadly, despite an unexpectedly warm evening and a glowing hot pink sunset, we woke up to rain which continued for most of the day.\u00a0 In the afternoon, we managed to get out for a short bike ride around the local fields, enjoying the many stripes of colours of the tulips, daffodils, narcissus and hyacinths; when in Holland, get on yer bike.\u00a0 And I know there must be some sunshine behind these grey clouds, so maybe tomorrow we\u2019ll get to Keukenhof.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC06949<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And we did, we got there at 8:15am and didn\u2019t leave until sometime after 1pm.\u00a0 We were only the second van in the motorhome car park, but by the time we left, there must have been fifty plus!!!\u00a0 So hours were spent tiptoeing through the tulips, pottering around the greenhouses and being dazzled by daffodils.\u00a0 Nature at it\u2019s very, very best.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Keukenhof
Keukenhof has to be one of those places that everyone should see once in their lifetime.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSC06980<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The smell of the hyacinths everywhere has been heavenly to my snoz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The colour combinations are spectacular.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Even
Even under chilly cloudy skies, the flowers seemed to glow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"And
And then there were more\u2026\u2026..<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"The
The sheer number of bulbs is totally mind-blowing!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Meandering
Meandering muscari<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"A
A cracking day out at unforgettable Keukenhof<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you have nothing else to do, do something.   Four years ago we were campervan novices, but now we feel like seasoned veterans. That is until a policeman on a motorbike pulls you over and, rather dangerously, makes you back up the hard-shoulder of a freeway to the previous junction and asks you to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8242,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4530\/revisions\/8242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.petersphotogallery.com\/rodneyandlaura\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}