Amsterdam: tulips!

 

If you ask anyone to free associate "The Netherlands," you'd probably get "windmills," and maybe "fingers in the dike." But I'll bet what would come up most often is "TULIPS!" And not without reason.

One of the reasons for the date we chose for this trip was a hope to see lots of these flowers in bloom.

And although I believe we might have been a week or so away from their peak, what we saw was still quite stupendous. And more than just tulips...there were several beds of gorgeous hyacinths, too, like the one on the right, and some other flowers I'll be showing you throughout this post.

The prime location for seeing as many flowers in one place as possible is the Keukenhof Gardens, outside of Amsterdam. Our helpful Viking hotel host made it super-easy to find the busses that take you there (about a half hour's drive, with the bonus of getting to see some of the cool modern architecture along the way that I showed you at the end of my last post).

There were a lot of people visiting the afternoon we were there, but it didn't ever feel crowded, the grounds are so spacious.

It's hard to say whether the massed beds of the same variety, or the beds that mixed types delightfully, were the more photogenic...

I still can't decide...what do you think?

The gardens have plenty of amenities, as well as all the flowers: ample bathrooms (an increasingly important item as I get older) and food options, too. We stopped for a light lunch of muffins and beverages by the lake you can see above.

Perking up the floral vistas are quirky artworks, like these "marshmallow drops" (the geese made a nice addition, too):

And there's even a windmill!

You can climb it, and here's what the adjoining tulip fields look like from up there (they would probably be more colorful in a week or two):

Here are what some of the other flowers on display looked like...

at first glance, I thought: bluebonnets!
but the helpful sign gave the correct name;
when they're white they're sometimes called "summer snowflakes"

narcissus and hyacinth...appropriately enough, the Ukrainian colors

narcissus, daffodils, tulips...I'm not sure what all's in this lovely display

We were in Europe at the perfect time to see all kinds of flowering trees in full bloom. But this big boy was the most spectacular...

In addition to the extensive outdoor gardens, they have a large conservatory that's simply packed with all kinds of tulips and other flowers. We spent a lot of time in there, taking many pictures of this incredible variety of colors and forms (the photo at the top of the post is one of the conservatory beds)...

I thought "spring break" was an appropriate name for these cheerful guys

there were a lot of amaryllis varieties on display, too

Such an amazing place! It was a highlight of our Amsterdam visit, and probably of the whole trip, too. But an important note for travelers: the gardens are only open in April and May!

We said goodbye to this wonderful place by noticing these sculpted tulips (outside the gift shop, of course)...they will never wilt or freeze: