Bonfire Festival...

After a busy day full of flowers, we dropped off our bikes and headed to Scheveningen Beach to attend the Bonfire Festival, which Ashlynn had highly recommended after happening upon it the night before.

It was a free event with a variety of different metal structures filled with pots of fire. It was awesome! 

Honestly, I’m not usually a big fan of fire, but these structures were very beautiful.

 

More Flower Parade...

 These few floats were more easily identifiable as Dutch Culture.

Here’s a window reflection selfie as we were leaving the parade.

Flower Parade...

After the hash circle and a great BBQ at Richard and Celine’s house, a bunch of us walked to the city center of Hillegom for the Flower Parade. This year’s theme was Culture.

Other Sightings on Trail...

I made several unexpected stops to take photos when I spotted: some cows eating next to purple flowers...

 ...a hot air balloon made out of flowers...

 ...a Snoopy sign...

 ...a gnome flipping a bird...

 ...a newborn kid...

...and an amazing peacock tail. 

Jimmy was very excited when he spotted a wooden raft attached to ropes to allow pedestrians to cross the canal. 

He thought it was particularly funny to make his passengers think he was returning without them. 

Lots of Bulb Fields...

The fields were extra colorful this year since the hyacinths, daffodils and tulips were all in bloom at once rather than sequentially as is the norm.   

As always, I took a lot of photos. These are my favorites. 

Covering Lots of Ground...

The hares did a great job making the route varied with lots of bulb fields as well as long stretches to get in some distance...

 ...and even a bit of off-road through some woods.

Richard took this selfie while we are stopped at one of the many bulb stops.

We took a group shot at another bulb field with our AH3 banner...

...and here’s Abbie taking a snooze on the banner at the beer stop.

Tulip Bash...

Due to a longer winter than usual, the bulb fields were really late to bloom this year. However, when they finally did bloom, they completely exploded in color. Perfect timing too, as they bloomed just in time for this year’s Amsterdam H3 Tulip Bash.

The hares also picked the perfect location: Hillegom. Amazingly, I took these first few photos from the train platform.

The great weather attracted a larger group than usual.

Steve especially got into the Dutch spirit and cycled the entire 35K in wooden clogs, likely not one of his better ideas as his feet were sore by the end.