Sunday, April 15, 2012

Millions of Tulips.


We left the ship at 10am and boarded our coach to Keukenhof. The coach driver was great took us there via some rural roads.Once in the country we were surrounded by fields and fields of brightly coloured flowers, Tulip and hyacinths mainly. Even from inside the coach you could smell the heady fragrance of the flowers!


The colours were outstanding every direction there were rows and rows of bright colours.
Once inside the gardens there was more formal planting, but it was still impressive looking at so many flowers in one place.


The entrance to the park was heaving with people and Beth said it felt like going into Disney. There was a fountain and a huge music organ playing, it definitely sounded like walking into a Disney Park. Once people started to move away from the main entrance the numbers thinned out and it didn't feel so crowded.
What was amazing was the number of people taking photographs. There must be millions and millions of photos of Tulips in existence simply from that one day. I took over 300 in the space of three days!! 
Everywhere I looked there were people with fantastic cameras promoting feelings of camera envy in my head. My camera felt very inferior in comparison, but in the end it didn't matter I stood my ground, I waited until  the back ground was clear and I snapped away!! 


The hyacinths were fabulous, the scent was on the breeze all day. 


Then onto the Tulips. We learnt that the tulips grow so well in the area because of the system of polders and canals. To reclaim the land canals were built to allow the land to drain. The land that is left is rich from the silt that had been at the bottom of the drained lakes. Because its not too far from the sea, there is a lot of sand blown in which mixes with the silt which results in the perfect mix for growing tulips!


So with so many tulips on display I became a bit confused about exactly which sort I liked. I have narrowed it down to 'pink' ones. That doesn't really help too much because there are many many shades of pink. 


Then the next problem is pink ones are lovely,
 but look how gorgeous they look when you add in yellows and reds!!! 


Then there are the special ones with frilly bits ....


And the most Delicious raspberry ripple ice cream shades.....


But I think I really love pretty pale pink. They are all beautiful!!

1 comment:

Raymonde said...

Wow amazing! Glad you got to do it. xxx