Cycling was my passion during my
college days. In fact, my friends used to call me ‘Jet’ because of the way I
ride the bicycle. Netherlands (In German, Neider = lower, land = country) is unarguably
the best place to ride a bicycle. If you still want to argue, let me take you
through my dream ride.
Colourful tulips, at its’ full bloom,
in the second half of April attracted me to Keukenhof tulip gardens. After getting
drenched in the beauty of splendid tulips at ‘The Garden of Europe’, I wanted
to return to Amsterdam. Unexpectedly, a large number of orange bicycles grabbed
my attention. I approached the stall and choose to take a ride through one of
the three available routes.
A separate one-way tar road for the bicycles
with green grass on either side of the road made my eye balls go big. But, my
eyes were on stalk when I noticed the yellow and white flowers in the green grass
along the road. The end of such a beautiful path took me to a canal and a pond
on either side of the road. If the white lotus flowers surrounded by the large green
leaves in the pond look stunning, the swans around the flowers just made my jaw
drop. I took a break to admire the beauty. When I resumed my ride, the sight of
numerous bridges connecting each house across the canal only filled my eyes
with more admiration towards the manmade nature.
The list of disbeliefs continued to
follow my ride when I came across an old wooden bridge with no barriers. The
bridge opened my path to acres of bright coloured tulips fields separated by small
canals. If the sight of such a beautiful view can be described as ethereal, a
ride in the fields amidst colourful tulips just fails my words to describe the
experience. I took another break to spend more time in the tulip fields and experience
the heavenly moments. A further ride for two miles took me to a dark path that
resembles a thick forest. With an eerie ambience and no biker in sight, only my
thoughts of fear tried to break the deafening silence. At the end of the tunnel
comes the light; at the end of the dark path comes a new field of tulips.
I took a diversion from the usual path
and rode towards the smaller villages nearby. A small village welcomed me with
a large field of red and yellow flowers. I parked my orange bicycle and ran into
the field as my joy knew no bounds. A further ride into the village took me by
the biggest surprise. There are at least 30 floats (a decorated platform behind
the truck) getting ready for an annual flower parade. Each float has a
different theme (such as angry birds, Thailand, EU, fashion, etc.) and was
decorated gorgeously with beautiful flowers. A 20 kilometer return trip to
Keukenhof only made my heart heavy, with plenty of memories.
