Keukenhof The Garden of Holland

No visit to the Netherlands can be complete without visiting the magnificent gardens at Keukenhof Lisse. Me and My wife always visit the park once a year and I never enjoy a better day each year as there are so many things to see and experience.
This year is the 58th time the parks are open to the public and they are spectacular. The Dutch people really excel in art of producing the worlds most beautiful flowers. The other draw is the fact that the smell of the flowers is astonishing.
Opening this year on the 20th March I found my self and my wife engrossed in the splendor of colour and imagination of the various flower mosaics and exhibition flowers.
In one of the large exhibition rooms you can watch the flower masters I have no other words for them putting together arrangements and displays. They are extremely talented also as you browse you notice that each of the flower arrangements and displays are marked.
The markings are to show that these arrangements have been judged and some of the fine examples that are awarded gold and silver and bronze medals. I can hardly judge the difference but I’m not a flower expert.
This year the gardens where opened Princess Victoria from Sweden and a lot of the themes where in celebration of the Swedish people. The main one being a Swedish Botanist called Linnaeus, Linnaeus was known as the King of Flowers. Linnaeus studied in Holland at the university at Harderwijk.
The Keukenhof site consists of a 32 Hectare site with shops, bulb exhibitions, displays and workshops this year their will be over seven million bulbs planted and blooming throughout the park. To see the park in glorious sunshine is an event I look forward to all year.
The spring gardens enthuse life into my soul as I walk in these fine gardens I find myself re vitalised. I enjoy going to the working windmill and see the bulbs bursting from the ground and sweet flower aroma that follows you everywhere.
Within the parks are ornamental lakes and fountains their are many fine art exhibits which can be purchased or I assume this as they all have a price tag. I expect you would have to wait till the gardens close in May.
I spend many hours here taking photos and never seem to have enough memory to keep all the excellent images. As well as having the finest blooms in Holland and perhaps the world on show there is a children’s park and a petting zoo to enjoy.
Keukenhof is very easy to get to there a local busses from both Schipol Airport and Leiden to the park and as I have lived in Holland for a few years you can rely on the Dutch transport system it is very good compared to England.
Don’t leave the park without buying some bulbs to plant for yourself they are excellent value they may not produce gold standard flowers but the ones we have bought over the years have always produced some very pleasant crocuses and tulips.
I find the people and staff at Keukenhof really friendly informative and can recommend this as the best day in Europe. When the sun is shinning and the park is in bloom then there is no place like it on Earth.
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© 2007 Andy Bolton 39 Liverpool UK