We landed around noon at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. Beautiful sunny, but windy, day. 14 C. After a short nap at the hotel we made our way to Keukenhof via Uber and spent the rest of the afternoon there. It’s a beautiful park setting where, we were told, more than million flower bulbs get planted every year! Learned about Netherlands’s bulb and cut flower industry, which is the biggest on the world.

Today was a somewhat frustrating day!

Today was a somewhat frustrating day. We woke up early (4:30 am) on account of the jet lag. I spent quite a bit of time trying to install the e-SIM I had purchased. Not a simple straightforward process, but eventually I succeeded. We headed to the airport to pick up our car rental and made our way to Haarlem. That was a disappointment! The town square dating from medieval times was a circus midway! \240Not what we expected, so we explored rhe streets a bit and curiously came across what appeared to be a Hudson Bay store, but no such store, just the sign on the building.

Next stop was Delft. Here the town square was occupied by an open market, which was somewhat more interesting. Had cappuccinos and some apple cake at a cafe, then did Rick Steves walking tour.

Next was about a 2 hour drive to Ghent Couldn’t believe the number of wind turbines in Belgium! Must have passed several hundred, scattered all over the countryside. At least fossil fuels aren’t such a blight on the landscape.

The data on my phone had been inconsistent (intermittently offline) and part way to Ghent we lost it altogether, so we didn’t know how to get to our hotel, having become too reliant on Googlemaps! We ended up driving into the centre of Ghent, hoping to see a McDonalds or Starbucks on the way so we could get Wi-Fi (saw lots of them earlier) but no luck. By this time we were really frustrated so turned on our regular data roaming with the outrageous charges and found our way to \240the hotel that way. From the \240hotel we took the bus to the old town centre (cheaper and easier than parking in the city centre) and had a very \240nice dinner at a Rick Steves recommended restaurant. Sherry’s steak was tough, but I enjoyed my ling cod and the Belgian beer was exceptional!

While at dinner I started “chatting” with my e-SIM provider, only to be told to expect a 2 hour wait. Not impressed with Airalo! Finally, after some troubleshooting with them back at the hotel, I got it working again. All in all, not our best day. The fact that it was windy and somewhat rainy didn’t help either. Hoping tomorrow is better!