One Billion Tulips

We visited the city of Amsterdam, with it's over 75 kilometers of canals and hundreds of very old, and very historic buildings. Not to mention legalized marijuana shops and a hearty red-light district.  But fear not my "work safe" viewers, for we will not be showing you any of that. Instead, we will tell you the story of the Netherlands's most beautiful contribution to the world, the lovely tulip. And there is no better place on earth to view these long stemmed beauties than at a magical land called Keukenhof.   

The Netherlands grows ~1 billion flower bulbs a year.

With 32 hectares and over 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, it would be hard to imagine a place that looks or smells better then Keukenhof Gardens. We happened to be there on the peak weekend and we shared the park with thousands of visitors. The park is only open for 7 weeks every spring and it holds over 800 varieties of tulips to include the rare black tulip.     

This field bordered the park and had tulips to the horizon.

The kaleidoscope of patterns in the gardens were painstakingly perfect.  The amount of work that must go into these displays would make any gardener feel lazy.

A river of tulips

Solid

Striped

Jagged Edged

The myth of a black tulip has been spread since the 1600s. Tulip growers tried to cultivate a black tulip by crossing dark purple and dark blue with no success. In 1850, Alexander Dumas further contributed to the myth by writing a book called "La Tulipe Noire". Growers kept trying and finally in 1997 after 11 years of work, Geert Hageman produced tulip "Paul Scherer", the first black tulip.  Now they are available world wide.

Obligatory shot of a random windmill. 

Never miss a chance to try on a new pair of shoes. 

These were a bit big for James

We toured the gardens with Pat's parents and friends from their transatlantic cruise. It was a memorable day.

The Keukenhof Gardens are located in Lisse, Netherlands at 52.26N, 4.56E. The weather was sunny and 66 degrees.

Next up is our plane flight to Singapore and the start of our far east adventures.

Cheers,
P&J