Keukenhof Gardens
Time to leave our hotel in the canal and head for the airport hotel. It is a pretty quick train ride that costs about eight euro. Thankfully, we were able to check in early. Getting our luggage settled, it was time to make a plan.
Schiphol Airport is convenience plus… we left the canal area and checked into Sheraton. Not only does the train pull right into the center of the airport, but after checking in, we were able to jump on a bus and visit Keukenhof Gardens. Unfortunately, we may not have the weather on our side… This is the view looking back at the entrance.
The grounds are stunning. The area is well manicured. On the outskirts of the gardens are fields of newly bloomed tulips. Inside the walls, trees line the immaculate flower beds.
As we admired the stunning bursts of color… another burst occurred! Rain began POURING… people scattered! We ran for cover under one of the warehouses. It turned out to be ok. Though we didn’t get to explore the amazing grounds with windmills and canals, we did get to see a variety of flowers.
The first warehouse was filled with “photo-ops”. Keeping in step with the selfie generation, Keukenhof Gardens created little vignettes for taking pictures. They were filled with color and perfect for taking Instagram worthy shots.
We thought we were visiting a tulip only garden. However, surprisingly, there were many varieties. Here are a few more shots of the flower displays.
The display with records was adorable… lots of oldies but goodies! On the right side, an old school flower child van was placed in the floral setting.
My favorite of all time… the iris. This was one type of flower used in my wedding bouquet. Contrasted with the white calla lily… a beautiful creation by my friend Rachelle. Seeing the bright yellow center against the deep purple leaves… so stunning!
The black center stands out on the red flower. Ruffled leaves of bright yellow…. these remind me of the crepe paper flowers we used to make when I was a kid.
My wedding Calla Lilies were white with yellow cone centers. I found these black ones unique.
YELLOW! These two varieties of tulips had me looking at the description tags closely. The wispy leaves on the right just didn’t seem like a tulip.
Some flowers are completely different in color… reds… yellows… and sometimes it is a subtle difference like a yellow border on an orange leave. Some have scalloped leaves, others more fluffy.
In the midst of rows of tulips, sat a section of hydrangeas. Even this flower came in a variety of colors. Perfect in shape…
So many differences… I enjoyed the feathery one on the right.
After surviving the downpour, we made our way back to the bus. Getting up in the morning, as we went to check out we asked the hotel desk girl if they had rooms available just in case we didn’t get on. We headed to our gate, checked the passenger loads and realized we would not be able to get a first class seat. So we decided to head back to the hotel and check in again. They were so kind… gave us drink coupons and a nice room. We had a very nice evening in the hotel lobby bar. Delicious food, a nice drink and a celebration for Earth Hour. After a good night sleep, we headed back and got into our comfy first class seats all the way across the world… Amsterdam to Seattle.
