This morning we were bused to world famous Keukenhof, a private garden open to the public only 8 weeks of the year, from mid-March to mid-May. During its peak blooming time, which is right now, it gets 26,000 visitors per day. This being the Easter weekend, I suspect there were more visitors than that today. The garden has been closed for the past 2 years due to COVID, so I’m sure lots of people wanted to come back to the garden. And we lucked out because, although a little nippy on our arrival at 9:30 a.m., the sun came out, warmed things up, and it was a glorious day in the garden.
Anyone who has followed this blog the past few years knows that Christine and I are garden lovers. I must say that Keukenhof will likely be the most fantastic garden we’ll have visited. I am at a loss for words to even begin describing its stunning beauty. I’m not even going to add captions to the photos because I could tell you how beautiful all the flowers are.
Of course the flowers are fantastic, but what really did it for me was the huge trees just leafing out and seeing and hearing all the wonderful birds. We strolled along for a while and then just sat on a bench to drink in the sights and sounds. Then we stroll some more and then sit a spell.
The garden covers about 80 acres. There are several buildings housing various displays, each having a cafe or place to enjoy a beverage. A crew of 30 gardeners plant 7 million bulbs each year, and each year all those bulbs are dug up and are mostly turned into animal feed. Some of the smaller bulbs do get sold, but the majority are tossed. Then the replanting of 7 million bulbs starts all over again. It’s so hard to imagine what 7 million bulbs looks like all piled up. The landscape designer draws each bed with colors and types of bulbs denoted, and gives the gardeners instructions for what to plant. It’s just unbelievable!
While tulips are the major floral display, there were numerous other bulbs, like daffodils, several kinds of hyacinths, snowdrops, irises, etc. But tulips are the main attraction. When one thinks Holland, you think tulips. Well, we learned that tulips originated in Turkey and were imported to the Netherlands long, long ago. There are over 3,000 named tulip varieties and I think we saw a lot of them.
One of the pavilions housed a fabulous orchid display. I love taking photos of orchids. They are such interesting flowers.
All the bulb beds were just breathtaking. The lawns and trees made everything just magnificent.
We had about 3 hours for our time at the garden and we probably could have spent another 3 hours just taking in all the beauty. It was crowded, more so in some spots than in others, but most of the time the crowds didn’t impact our enjoyment. Keukenhof is truly heaven on earth.
Afterwards, our tour stopped at a Dutch pancake house for lunch. Dutch pancakes are more like crepes. We had one bacon pancake and one cheese pancake and split them. I probably could have eaten a couple more, but by the time you sprinkle on powdered sugar and squeeze on the syrup, one was enough to eat, not to mention the high caloric content.
We then bused back into Amsterdam to board our riverboat, the Avalon Vista. We’re sleeping on the riverboat while docked tonight in Amsterdam. So our time in Amsterdam is nearly over. We have one more tour in the morning and then we will begin our riverboat trip tomorrow afternoon. We have been so fortunate with the weather; each day has been fine, moderate temperatures, and pretty sunny. Let’s hope that stays with us over the next week.
Your travel blog could be published as a travel guide. The photographs are superb and your commentary exquisite. Love reading and seeing your perspective on the Olivia vacations I love so. Thanks so much!
Joyce, thanks for your kind words. I write about what interests me as well as reporting on what I’m learning and what we want to keep in our memories. It’s fun, a lot of work, and gives us such a great “scrapbook” of our adventures. Thanks for reading along with us.
Really enjoying your trip so far – Amsterdam seems so beautiful!
I loved looking at the gardens. You are getting me in the mood to take a trip to Longwood Gardens in PA with the unending carpets of tulips. I particularly liked your photo of the shaggy daffodils and tulips. When I saw the hyacinths, I could only imagine how they perfumed the air.
Happy to know that the weather is continuing to cooperate.
Hi Irene. Keukenhof was glorious, and you are correct. The smell of the hyacinths was nearly overwhelming. Go to Longwood and take in the beauty of the spring flowers and trees. It’s food for body, mind, and spirit. Love to you both.