We made our last stop outside of Amsterdam in the small city of Haarlem. Staying here has two distinct advantages; you are near the airport for the flight home, and you are just a half hour from Keukenhof, what I’d refer to as the Disneyland of Holland. The day we arrived in Haarlem there was a flower festival happening in town. We missed the parade, but walked around and found most of the floats getting prepped to be hauled away.
The locals were walking around trying to get flowers off the floats, but they were still pretty intact. Reminded us of the Rose Bowl parade.
We only had one full day to spend here before our flight, and we spent it at one of the top attractions in the Netherlands, Keukenhof.
The entrance to the place is absolutely JAM PACKED with people, but if you walk maybe 100 yards into the garden the crowds thinned considerably. I wonder if some of these people walk in, take a million photos at the entrance, and leave? If so they are missing out on the best flower display we’ve ever seen.
There are over 7 million flowering tulips, daffodils and other bulb flowers to be seen in the Spring. Our timing was perfect. For reference, we were there on April 24th.
It’s like something out of a fairy tale, or a really expensive wedding! The place really does feel like Disneyland, without the rides.
Just beautiful flowers everywhere you look. The name “tulip” comes from the Persian word “tulipan”, which means “turban”, the shape of the tulip bulb. There has been a tulip garden at this location since the 17th century.
The tulips in the Netherlands originally came from Turkey. The Austrian Ambassador to Ottoman Turkey gave the first bulbs to the Dutchman Carolus Clusius, who planted the first bulbs in 1593.
I don’t know how many times I said “wow”!! I heard the same thing over and over from others in the garden.
There are little signs all over to identify the type of tulips and daffodils you are looking at. There are several growers in the gardens who are selling their bulbs, so you can identify the ones you like the most if you want to buy some. The growers will help you decide which flowers to get based on your location. Unfortunately some of the ones we liked the most don’t do well in Northern California, but there are plenty of options!
The “flamed” or “striped” tulips originated because of a virus carried by aphids from one plant to another, so these popular tulips were actually diseased. This one is called “United States”…maybe because they look like the flame on the Statue of Liberty?
There’s beautiful and more beautiful! Somebody literally proposed directly to the left of where Kim is sitting just a few minutes prior. Fortunately she said yes, or I would have been forced to post a video of the aftermath.
We were here for nearly 3 hours. It never got old!
I was trying to take a selfie so some kind lady assisted us since she could tell I’m a boomer with limited selfie skills.
Near the entrance is this field of mixed tulips. I was shocked we didn’t see people walking into them to get their Instagram shot (although we saw plenty of Instagrammer types throughout the park…ugh).
If you look in the background of this photo you will get a feel for how crowded certain spots were. The line to get into the windmill was massive. Fortunately we have already visited several windmills in the Netherlands.
Directly adjacent to Keukenhof are fields of flowers. We saw these all over this region as we were driving from spot to spot…they really stand out from the surroundings.
Keukenhof was definitely one of the major highlights of our trip. Our trip to the airport the next day was uneventful, and the flights were pretty much on time. Overall a very successful trip, and the Netherlands are definitely something you should place on your bucket list, particularly if you can get here in April!
Next up, we have one final post on the things we learned about the Netherlands.