Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Keukenhof


The first stop on my trip was Keukenhof. If you've never heard of this place, it's called the largest bulb flower park in the world. There are fields and fields of tulips, as you can see below.

It's one of the most popular attractions in the Netherlands and over the last 60 years, more than 44 million visitors have passed through their gates. It covers over 79 acres and there are 4.5 million tulips in 100 different varieties.

There are over 9 miles of footpaths (and I felt like I walked each one) and is the largest sculpture park in the Netherlands. I loved the Flintstone car.

Over 7 million bulbs are planted by hand here. Some are in beds and some are in containers.

Each year, they choose a theme. This year, the theme was "From Russia with Love". There were great statues of the wooden nesting dolls. Most incredible was the mosaic of St. Basil's Cathedral done with 65,000 bulbs. I'll have to post those pictures later as I need hubby's help getting them off the camera.

I'm leaving you with more photos of the beautiful flowers there. Tomorrow is the wooden shoe and cheese farm we visited. I have a video of the owner making wooden shoes. 

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks beautiful! It must ahve been amazing walking among so many gorgeous flowers! Thanks for sharing your photos!

Autumn Jordon said...

Oh, I envy you. I'd love to visit Holland. Beautiful pictures.

AJ

http://tinyurl.com/28qj33j

Elle James said...

Absolutely gorgeous!!! What a wonderful experience to see.

Liana Laverentz said...

Beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing them! You might want to post some of them on the sites that pay royalties for cover art images and stuff.

P.L. Parker said...

I love this! And I'm so jealous. Would love to see this in person.

Kathy Otten said...

Beautiful photos. My town has Dutch roots and every year we celebrate The Tulip Festival. May 15th. It doesn't have much to do with tulips but everyone dresses in old dutch costumes with wooden shoes and first they wash the streets, then the Klompen dancers perform. There is a parade and usual fair activities. Good family fun that doesn't cost much.

Denise Golinowski said...

Wonderful! Thank you for sharing the pics. The shot of the field of tulips is just as I imagined the outskirts of Valgate would appear, however with a wide variety of aromatic flowers for perfumes. It must have been sensory overload. I'm looking forward to more of your virtual tour ;-)

Mary Ricksen said...

I loved seeing the fantastic pictures of the bulbs blooming. Hyacinth is my favorite of the bulbs. Probably the incredible smell!

Stephanie Burkhart said...

Riley, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful pictures! I was stationed in Germany for 7 years, the last time was 1995-97 and I had a chance to visit the Keukenhof. It was beautiful, especially this time of year and your pictures captured that. Thanks so much for sharing. My favorite? The tulip of course! hehe

How do you go from Texas to Germany? And how do you like Barvaria? It's gorgeous! I write paranormal myself. Do you Twitter? Send me a link and I'll follow you.

Smiles
Steph

Hywela Lyn said...

What gorgeous photos! I live in the UK, closer to Holland than you do, but I've never been there. Must be an amazing experience to see all those beautiful flowers in bloom in such quantity.
Thanks for sharing.

Dawn Ius said...

Tulips are my favorite flower and I have always wanted to go to the Netherlands during this time. Thanks for posting the gorgeous pics - I can now live vicariously through them.

Gale Stanley said...

The pictures are gorgeous! I have one of those Russian nesting dolls. My grandchildren love to play with it.
BTW, I tagged you on my blog - sorry!
http://galestanley.blogspot.com/

Suzanne Johnson said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I'm jealous (but have a great trip anyway).

Riley Quinn said...

Thanks for stopping by, everyone! The flowers were amazing and my little digital camera couldn't quite pick up the colors but I appreciate the compliments.

Kathy, your Tulip Festival sounds like a lot of fun. It's neat when towns celebrate their roots. In Texas in the town of West, they have a celebration every Labor Day weekend to commemorate their Czech roots.

Mary, the smell was amazing and the hyacinth were one of the most aromatic there.

Steph, hubby accepted a job offer from a government contractor to work on the military base here. I'm enjoying my time here very much. I'm on twitter but still getting my feet wet with it. Hop over to my website, www.riley-quinn.com for the link.

Jeannene Walker said...

Great photos! We visited the Kukenhof in 1971 this time of year (of course!) We camped in the chill, but the gardens were out of this world. So fun to see your sites. Thanks for sharing.

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