Keukenhof - the colors of Holland

Fields of flowers that the camera cannot do justice to

Today dawned very sunny and unseasonably warm. Riet and Bart (Ad’s parents) picked us up at the caravan at 9:00 and we headed N/W to Lisse to visit the Keukenhof gardens. It was supposed to be 1.5 hours away, but the traffic in Holland is pretty horrendous. Even small towns have traffic jams for kilometers. When we hit Rotterdam …. Well, you know how it is.

Our arrival in Lisse was heralded by two barges moving serenely through the tulip fields. How odd! Oh! I see it now … the canal … and the bridge that they have raised so that traffic is backed up for miles. Another delay, but we have a brand new Peugeot with air conditioning, so it’s “nee zo bad” as they say in slang. The temperature hit 30 degrees in the afternoon, so it was a good thing we had a cool ride back home.

The gardens are very much like Butchart Gardens in Victoria, with different themed areas. We arrived during the 2^nd weekend of open flowers, so the displays were at their peak, but the crowds were … well, crowded. It was actually tiring just trying to navigate through the different gardens, and we didn’t see the whole thing. The tulips were marvelous, of course! What was even more impressive were the orchid gardens and the lily house. There are constant competitions here for best blooms and best presentations. I know Gill will be VERY impressed with the 1^st place orchid winner pictured here. I tried to sneak it out in my purse, but the orchid Politie are very strict about what you take as a souvenir. Sorry, Gill!

A  serene scene in the madness of Keukenhof

The fields of tulips are everything they show on postcards, although the lack of windmills is very noticeable. I asked Ad about it, and they honestly have not noticed that the working mills have been slowly replaced by electric pumps and large turbines. We’re going to go to an area where the canals are still pumped out by mills later on next week. I’ll definitely do a ‘report’ on them!