Keukenhof Gardens

 On our bus ride to the gardens we pass this wooden structure. It displays how long the wooden logs/stilts are that the houses sit upon. When many canals were created to control the water and provide land for houses with the reclaimed land, engineers had to find a way to make the houses stable and keep them from sinking into the soft newly created land. The houses needed these long pole to reach stable ground. 

I caught this parent “driving” their child to school or daycare in a special bicycle made to haul objects. These are very common here in Amsterdam.

Interesting building structures. The one on the far right is “The Earthquake.”

“The Rock”

The Keukenhof Gardens is full of flowers. Last week, many of the tulips hadn’t bloomed yet so we really had a nice visit with so many flowers blooming. The gardens are only open 8 weeks out of the year (mid March to mid May). They receive about 26,000 visitors each day. Our coach (bus) got us there early, before the crowds arrived, which made our visit very pleasant.  

It is not just tulips here in the garden. Others bulb flowers that are raised here include hyacinths, irises, daffodils, lilies, and even non bulbs like roses. They create new varieties each year and some are unnamed. 

This kangaroo chair begged to be sat in.

There are sculptures around in the gardens, a maze, a petting zoo, a playground, vendors taking bulb orders and selling bulbs, as well as photo opportunities galore. 

Just for a reference this next picture is how the garden may have looked last week according to our guide (he had a group last week). The gardens (79 acres) are open from mid-March to mid-May only. The majority of flowers (7 million flower bulbs) are not picked. Only a small number of tulips are picked. The hyacinths are all scheduled to be picked for the parade next week. 49 workers are busy all the time digging up bulbs and planting new patterns every year. It is a huge job and a few of the bulbs (escapees) showed up in the wrong flowerbed. We could have bulbs shipped home from here but could not carry them back on the plane.

I did not realize that I had changed a setting on my camera but these next pictures look like chalk drawings. ☺️

Indoor (greenhouse) displays

The maze in the gardens.

The gardens were originally a kitchen garden for the 15th castle, Slot Teylingen. Keukenhof means kitchen garden. It is located outside of Amsterdam in Lisse, Netherlands. I didn’t see a castle but 79 acres is a big area. Besides the gardens, there were fields of flowers and a canal surrounding the fields offering tourists a scenic tour of the fields.