Keukenhof - *Graphics Heavy!!*

Keukenhof is a huge flower garden in Holland (and yes, really in the Holland part of the Netherlands). I wouldn't really call it a botanical garden, since it's really just bulb flowers. It's billed as "The World's Largest Flower Garden." I believe it.

You probably won't remember, since it was almost 2 years ago, but I was quite disappointed when we went to the Netherlands and didn't see any tulips. We were just a tiny bit too late in the year. So this year, I wanted to see some tulips. It isn't very far. So, we went. We headed up early Saturday morning. We got a bit down the road before I realized we had forgotten our passports. We don't have to show them at border crossings, but they usually need them at hotels. Since we were staying in Germany this time, I hadn't thought about bringing them originally, but we thought we should get them just in case. I'm glad we did, because though we didn't end up needing the passports, but we really needed the extra coats we grabbed while we were getting the passports. It was freezing up there!

As we got close, we started passing huge fields of flowers. We pulled over and rolled down the window to get a picture of a hyacinths. The smell of hyacinths was amazing.

It was pretty crowded by the time we got there, but it was OK. Emma was a cranky little thing. I wanted her to take a nice picture with the pretty ladies at the entrance, but she gave me her bitchy face.

Max got her a cocoa, and she felt a bit better. She really wanted to see the falcon show at 2 (she LOVES falcon shows), so our first order of business was to find where that was going to be. Next to the big park map, there was a sign that gave a location for the falcon show, but that location wasn't marked on the big map or on our guidebook. We asked the pretty dressed up ladies where it was, but all we got was vague pointing in the direction of the windmill. Since we still had two hours until the show, we headed in the opposite direction. We figured we could see the other side of the park and get over to that side by 2.

It was rather overcast, so the colors that were so vibrant in real life just aren't the same in the pictures. I still got some really nice ones, though, I think. The flowers are arranged in plots. I think different people/companies exhibit their flowers, because the plots had signs with names.

Some plots were smallish, but others were pretty darn big. The colors were just amazing.

I love the way that the gardeners combined the colors to make such gorgeous flower plots.

At the far end of the park is a cafe. We were pretty hungry by now, so we bought the horribly overpriced food. It was yummy, though, so it's OK. I hate when I pay too much for yucky food. Well, I hate yucky food at all, but especially when it costs a lot. 

There's a little "lily pad" walk out in the lake. They seriously need to make that thing one way. A path that could be skipped across in less than 2 minutes if you were by yourself took us probably 10 minutes to get across, because of all the people on it. Especially the ones who would stop traffic in both directions to take pictures. I was ready to push them all off into the lake and make a dash for it.

The park is filled with not only flowers, but also strange pieces of sculpture.

There were also a couple of indoor exhibition areas. Some flowers were in pots, but others were planted.

The planted areas looked like mini farms, with a few square feet of one kind of flower right next to a couple of square feet of another.

Max discovered that he likes the parrot tulips best

Daffodils and tulips are some of my favorite flowers, so I was in heaven.

I stopped in a shop to buy a hat, because I was freezing. I did NOT expect it to be so cold! If my ears get too cold, I get earaches, which lead to headaches, which lead to migraines and car sickness, so it was a good idea to get a hat. They only had one kind, though in different colors. It was knitted with a big poof on top and large ear braids and poofs. It said Amsterdam in huge letters. I'd say 1 out of every 10 people there had one on. I stood in solidarity with all of my brothers and sisters who also didn't think to bring hats. 

We made it to the other side of the park, near the windmill that the pretty ladies had pointed out. We saw no signs of a falcon show. We asked a couple of people working over there, and they had no idea. Somebody suggested that it might be by the children's' garden, so we started over that way.

Before we did, though, we stopped at a stand where two ladies were making fresh stroopwaffels. I love stroopwaffels. They are very thin waffles that are cut in half and filled with melted caramel. We've only had the packaged kind before, though. Max and Em prefer the packaged ones, but I loved the fresh one. Amazingly, in line behind us were people we knew! The girl used to be in Girl Scouts with Em, and the parents were in a Dave Ramsay class that Max & I took last year. They're also the ones who were with us in Brussels to see the flower carpet. Strange, huh? Maybe not so strange that they were there the same weekend (the park is only open from the end of March through mid-May), but that we would all be in line for stroopwaffels together.

Batter "biscuits" that they put in the waffle iron

Spreading on the caramel

On our way over to the children's garden, Em spotted the falcon show. There was already quite a crowd gathered, but she got a good spot. Max & I picked out a bench not far away and sat down. We let Em hold the camera, and she got some pretty good pictures.

There was a hill that overlooked the flower fields that we had seen coming in. This is looking towards the street where we were parked when we took the first hyacinth pictures. We were right in front of those rainbow towers.

There is a "walk of fame" of tulips named after famous people and characters.

Pinocchio

Caravaggio

Putin

There was also a flower picture of Chopin

Each year, they have a theme. This year's theme was "Surprising Poland." We were thinking that the last time somebody surprised Poland, it wasn't a good thing. (Yes, I know they meant surprising as an adjective, but it's not funny that way)

After the Surprising Poland building, we were ready to go. We stopped in one of the bulb shops and ordered some bulbs. You pay for them there and they send them to you in the fall. We were going to have them sent to us in Germany, because it was quite a bit cheaper, but it turns out you can't import tulips to America without special permits and such. So, we had to have them sent straight there. They'll be waiting in our cellar when we get home in December (Thanks, Maggie!)

I hadn't been able to find any hotels available near Keukenhof, since it was a rather last minute decision to come to Holland. So, I had booked a hotel in Wesel, Germany. The original plan was to stay overnight in Holland and then drive back home through Wesel (the sister city of our town in MD) and Solingen, to visit the castle where Anne of Cleves grew up. But, since I couldn't find a hotel in Holland, we just headed to Wesel.

We realized part way to the hotel that we may not be able to find food. It was Saturday night, but it was the night before Easter. We weren't going to get to Wesel until about 7, and we didn't know if anything would be open. So, as we passed an Ikea, we decided to get dinner. Ikea has a different menu in The Netherlands, I never would have guessed. In The Netherlands, you can get a cheese plate or chicken satay, in addition to the normal lox or meatballs. 

We found the hotel no problem. It's a really nice place. It's the former home of Konrad Duden, the guy who apparently standardized the German language.

This was the next day. It was dark when we got there

Emma says - It was really, really pretty, I really liked it. I really enjoyed the falcon show and the stroopwaffels. It was good all around, I would suggest going.