Hoi Netherlands: Day 2 -FloraHolland Aalsmeer Flower Auction 

Since we both managed to sleep on board, we decided to go ahead with our trip to FloraHolland, Aalsmeer Flower Auction.

 It makes sense for us to go to FloraHolland from Schipol Airport, because it is just 14km away. Furthermore, check-in at Airbnb rental was only at 12.30pm.

Fret not, for I’ve already checked and confirmed that luggage storage is possible at FloraHolland’s Visitors Centre, at no charge.

By the time we got into Bus no 300 (direction Bijlmer Arena) from bus stand outside Schipol Plaza, it was already close to 8.00am. I used my OV-chipkaart, but didn’t manage to buy a ticket for ZE, my niece.

It took us 10 minutes to arrive at Amstelveen Busstation, for our connection bus no 172 (direction Kudelstraat) to FloraHolland. ZE paid €1 this time, and I found out thereafter that it is a flat children fare for all buses. It took us another half an hour to arrive.

Admission fee was €6.00 adult, and €3.50 for children. After we bought our tickets, our luggage was kept in a store room.

According to my research, flower auction ends at 8am. But it was still in action around 9.00am. In hindsight, we should’t have stayed too long at Schipol, but since we still managed to catch the auction, no harm done.

 ZE was more interested in flowers and flower delivery going all around us, rather than the auction itself. I tried getting her to understand the auction process, but failed. So, I decided to let her explore at her own pace.

I asked her to guess the top five export countries: Germany, Russia, Italy, France and Belgium, and she got all right.

ZE mentioned her sister many times at FloraHolland, as her little sister loves flowers.

 We left Aalsmeer on the same bus no 172  (direction Amsterdam CS) with the intention of heading to Haarlem for lunch and check-in.

 ZE bought tickets for herself  most of the time.

 But since ZE was already hungry, we stopped at Amstelveen and were glad to stumble upon this vegan food truck. How cool! When will we have a vegan food truck in Malaysia and Thailand?

After lunch, we took bus no 300 (direction CS Haarlem) to Haarlem.

Today is also the beginning of our trip in the Netherlands, where zebra crossing is really respected and adhered to. In Malaysia and Thailand, zebra crossing is just a decoration.

And also, we need to pay for toilet facility at public place.