I've been back in Colorado for nearly two weeks now and spring has yet to make an appearance. I'm pretty sure this is my Karma for posting pictures of 5-day weather forecasts of 100+ degree temperatures in Chiang Mai while it was snowing in Colorado. Well played, Karma. Well played. With the snowfall and blizzard-like conditions yesterday, it had me reminiscing about spring and a trip I took 3 years ago to see the tulips in Holland.
When I was still living in England, my mom came to visit me. As we had already toured around England together on a previous trip, I wanted to take her to Germany. I had heard about a tulip festival in Holland, and as tulips are one of my favourite flowers (take note all you Mr. Darcy's lining up to take me on a date), I wanted to stop there first to tip-toe through the tulips.
The beautiful gardens of Keukenhof
Wow. All I could say was WOW.
We headed to the gardens of Keukenhof, about a 45 minute drive from Amsterdam. Keukenhof was in full bloom. With over 7 million bulbs of tulips, hydrangeas, daffodils, amaryllis, crocus, and chysantemums, when I say "full bloom", I mean FULL BLOOM. With every colour imaginable planted in lines, patterns, shapes, I didn't only tip-toe through the tulips, I danced through them!
Tulips upon tulips upon tulips at Keukenhof
You could spend a full day walking along the paths, around the ponds and fountains filled with lilies and ducks, and have a bite to eat at one of restaurants in the gardens. There are many shops in the gardens where you can purchase a variety of bulbs to be delivered to your home in the autumn so you can enjoy the beautiful Dutch tulips every year.
Beautiful pink and reds!
I'll let you tip-toe through my beautiful tulip photographs of Keukenhof - hopefully they'll inspire you to take a trip to Holland to view this spectacle yourself!
Yellow and white tulips and daffodils
Another "perfect timing" shot :)
Variety garden
My new pair of shoes!
Beautiful, right?
Red and white ones
They even have disabled parking in the tulips at Keukenhof!
Overlooking the fields from atop a Dutch windmill at Keukenhof
Tickets to Keukenhof are 15.00 Euro. The best time to go is between the 3rd week of April to about the 2nd week of May when the flowers are in full bloom...and smell absolutely delicious! If you're interested in further information, check out the Keukenhof website here.
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