Amsterdam, A Place I wish to Stay Forever – Day 1 Schiphol Airport & Keukenhof #EuroTrip #Backpackers

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

Alhamdulillah for this beating heart and opportunity to share my experience travelling to other countries – this time on few of the European countries, to witness one tiny parts of Allah Azzawajalla countless creations.

I always wanted to write about my journey as soon as I’m home so that the memories are still fresh but I failed to do so. Every. Single. Time – blerghhh!! Suka bertangguh.. Astaghfirullah! Anyways, syukur ya Allah dapat juga share hari ini, better late than never right? ehem..

The original plan was actually to attend my bro-in-law’s (bil) convocation in City University, London which was supposed to be in 2016 however, my sis-in-law (sil) has something else in mind and therefore the plan was carried out last April – a year earlier, haha kemain awal.

All the plans, surveys on flight ticket, accommodation and itinerary were prepared by my sis-in-law. Since she had experience as backpacker before this, so kami ikutkan saja la senang kerja haa. Just sediakan duit as she told and off we go! Thanks kak Nini for the hard work!

Thursday 9^th April 2015

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Netherlands

                                                          

On Wednesday 8^th April we departed from KLIA around 11.20 pm and after a long flight – 12 hours of flying, alhamdulillah we finally arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Pertama kali naik airplane lama-lama rasa exhausted dan sakit punggung la juga tapi tak bosan sebab flight dari KLIA tengah malam so we spent the rest of the time sleeping!

Sebenarnya selepas banyak kejadian ‘malang’ kapal terbang di dunia, Malaysia khususnya, I do felt a bit nervous dan terbayang yang bukan-bukan terjadi tapi di mana pun kita berada kematian itu adalah pasti. Beriman dan bertaqwalah inshaAllah kita semua akan dapat husnul Khotimah. Jenuhlah juga baca semua doa, tidur pun tidur-tidur ayam je huu..

As soon as we landed there was my bil waiting for us, he flew from London a bit earlier and slept in the airport. It was around 6.30 am and was about time for Subuh to finish so we hurried to pray and freshened up a bit at Schiphol’s toilet je. Dari sini bermulalah tandas tanpa paip dan solat di tepi-tepi jalan.

First time ever sampai so excuse the excited face yea

TIPS: Untuk Muslimah, pakailah pakaian solat-friendly, cause there is no way for you to solat with telekung on.. yeaa. Baguskan berjalan di negara sejuk ni, senang je untuk we Muslimah menjaga aurat in terms of baju. At first it may seems ‘tak sengaja’ cause actually we wanted to be fashionable but with that long trench coat eh, tutup aurat plak. Bonus!

From Schiphol Airport we went to Ibis Budgets Hotel for luggage storage using a FREE shuttle prepared by the hotel itself. Bus stopnya exactly outside the airport so please read the sign carefully and find your hotel’s name, because we didn’t haha. Bagusnya di Eropah adalah hotel mereka tak kedekut untuk tumpangkan luggage customers di hotel and as a matter in fact, they have rooms especially for luggage storage. Tak kisah lah if we came too early to check in or after we checked-out, we still can use the luggage room for FREE! 

Tu kt atas signboard semua nama hotel yang sediakan shuttle

After letak barang dan bawa apa yang patut like foods for lunch, we headed back to Schiphol to buy our Holland Pass and from there to catch our bus to Keukenhoff. Counter to buy the Holland Pass is inside the airport so find it and buy according to your preference. We bought the:

Holland Pass (5 tickets: 2 gold + 3 silver) at € 62.00 = RM 269.05 Conversion rate back then la, anyone going at this time of economic crisis memang confirm kaya hehe. With this pass we got to use/convert for all these (before purchasing any pass, some studies and plans need to be done first and only then you’ll know which pass to buy and if malas nak fikir dan kebetulan nak pergi exactly like us, beli je yang ni senang!):

§ Bus to Keukenhof (Silver)

§ Keukenhof entrance fee (Gold)

§ Bus to Zaanse Schans (Silver)

§ Madame Tussaud Amsterdam (Gold)

§ Amsterdam Cruise (Silver)

§ 1 day Pass for transport

Keukenhof, Netherlands

Main entrance untuk masuk ke Keukenhof

Tulips ada di mana-mana dan kelihatan seperti plastic, cantik sangat!

Pemandangan di sana subhanAllah sangat cantik and pictures just don't do it justice so datang lah sendiri kalau ada rezeki

Sempat picnic untuk isi perut sebelum sambung berjalan sebab waktu di Schiphol tak sempat nak breakfast. Kami bawa nasi impit, kuah kacang, sambal ikan bilis dan baki makanan dari kapal terbang

Untuk ambil gambar kat sini tak perlu bayar tapi kena beratur dan minta orang tolong ambilkan gambar jika datang hanya berdua tapi semua orang pun buat benda sama so jangan risau

Wefie bersama family adalah wajib sebab pemandangan yang subhanAllah cantik!

Bukan hanya bunga, malah ada juga mini zoo di mana terdapat rabbit, kambing dan beberapa haiwan lain

Tempat tunggu bas untuk balik dari Keukenhof ke Schiphol Airport berada betul-betul di luar pagar Keukenhof

Schiphol to Keukenhof via bus took about 40 to 50 minutes depending on the traffic condition and so around 11 am we arrived. No longer need to buy the entrance ticket we just queued at the entrance and showed the Gold Holland Pass. Maksudnya baguslah sebab jimat masa kalau guna Holland Pass ni, terus masuk je yeay!

Keukenhof sangat besar dan punyalah besar tu sampaikan kami yang dah berjalan 2 jam setengah ni pun tak cover habis tempat tu. We had our lil ‘picnic’ in there and enjoyed the breathtaking sceneries.Ternyata Keukenhof memang syurga dunia bagi peminat bunga!

The view there SubhanAllah, if you’re not a flower fans you still gonna fall in love with all of the blossoming flowers! It doesn’t matter what you’ll wear because each and every single photos of yours still gonna be lawa gila!

TIPS: Pakai sport/walking shoe kerana tempat yang sangat luas ni perlu banyak berjalan bagi menyaksikan keindahannya. Bawalah bekal makanan dan minuman jadi boleh picnic sambil menikmati keindahan alam ciptaan Allah.

Memang ada FREE wifi tapi hanya di Oranje Nassau iaitu pusat pameran indoor so ramai lah orang yang stay di luar tempat tu untuk gunakan wifi upload gambar kt insta, including myself hehe.

TIPS: Keukenhof dibuka setiap tahun dalam bulan Mac ke Mei dan kalau nak dapatkan view terbaik ladang tulips kena datang somewehere around end of April. Kalau datang terlalu awal jadilah macam kami, tak dapat tengok ladang tulips tu nak pula tahun ini cuaca agak tak menentu tulips pun baru saja nak bertunas.

Gambar yang dikongsi kat sini tak banyak tapi percayalah memang sangat cantik di sana dan untuk tahu betapa cantiknya kenalah datang sendiri. Mudah-mudahan anda juga dimurahkan rezeki dan diberi kesempatan to witness all these with your own eyes and be thankful for all the blessings He poured upon us, inshaAllah.

"Tidaklah mereka menjelajah di muka bumi, supaya mereka mempunyai hati yang dapat memikirkan atau telinga dapat digunakan untuk mendengar? Sebenarnya bukan mata yang itu yang buta, tetapi yang buta ialah hati yang di dalam dada"Al-Hajj [22.46]

Lebih kurang jam 2 petang we were really exhausted and head back to Schiphol Airport dan dari situ terus kembali ke Ibis Budget Hotel untuk berehat. On my next post I’ll review on the hotel. Nama saja budget tapi kemudahan dan bilik tip top, well ini budget tahap Amsterdam haha so don’t missed my next post.

Till then, assalamualaikum and have a barakah day.