A Break from the City

Last weekend I got to go see Lily in her new house in Amsterdam.  (I say new house, because she switched families because of some visa complications.)  Anyway, we rode our bikes over to Amsterdam Bos - a forest on the south side of Amsterdam with plenty of trees, fields of flowers, bike paths, jogging paths, and a lake.  It reminded me of Lake Elizabeth - a lake near my hometown where many a picnic, play date, and group barbecue were had.
So we set off, Lily on her sunshine yellow bike, and me on a borrowed bike with two broken spokes...if you've ever wondered how essential a bike spoke is to the functioning of a bike as a whole entity...try breaking one.  You'll be freakishly surprised.  But I made it (in Amsterdam traffic no less) so I guess it wasn't too big a deal.
As we rode towards the forest, we made a quick stop in front of the Olympic stadium/museum...

We didn't go inside, or explore any of the surrounding area, but we made plans to do it soon seeing as Lily lives about five minutes away.
Then we got to the adorable little forest.  We rode past crew teams practicing on the lake while the trainer biked by us, screaming obscenities into a bullhorn and definitely not looking where he was going.  We rode past a cute little restaurant that we thought was a Starbucks, but really it was just a green circle.  We rode on a non-bike path and got shot dirty looks by the oncoming joggers.  And we ended up in a field...a field of poppies and angel breath and adorable yellow bits of sunshine.  So of course, Lily had to add a little more...

Then I had to enjoy matching the scenery, while being able to be in the sun...

Then we settled down for a little picnic.  When we were done, we had fun making flower wreaths like we did when we were younger...

And overall had a fantastic day!  It was a lovely little day trip, and I'm glad I got to hang out with Lily.  And now that the sun is out, I pan on visiting such parks over and over again!

Visit Lily's blog for more pictures plus copies of these ones because I stole them from her facebook page!

Word of the Day: bos - forest (yes that means that the name of the park is "Amsterdam Forest")