Best Garden I've Ever Seen!

Flower shaped water fountain

We wanted to actually do some travelling IN the Netherlands, instead of only travelling to other countries. Since the Netherlands is known for its tulips, Penny looked into some places to go and declared we were going to the Keukenhof Gardens which are just south of Amsterdam. Yep, ALL the way on the opposite side of the country! She arranged all of the plans for this trip.

We got everything ready the night before (lunches, snacks, cameras), but it looked like it was supposed to rain on the day, so we debated about even going. Who wants to walk around outside when it is raining, even if it is in a beautiful garden. When we got up Penny checked the weather and it looked like rain for most of the afternoon. We missed our first train as we weren't really excited about the prospect of rain. Being as we are limited on time here and this was on the "must do" list, I said, "It's only a little water, and what else would we do today?". So we decided to go to the Gardens anyway.

We're so happy we decided to make the trip. We missed the morning rain and only had a few sprinkles while we were there, and were rewarded with some gorgeous flowers. The bright, vivid, rich, colors were unbelievable. When I went to take a photo of some brilliant red flowers that seemed to burn the eyes with their brightness, you almost couldn't make out they are real flowers. I don't think the camera knew what to focus on.

Penny behind Bright Red Tulips

When we entered the gardens we were given a map. Walkways went in every direction, so we had to make a decision on which way to go as we wanted to see the whole place. We decided to go down the long path to the right and maybe come back and forth across the gardens in this fashion. At first thought this seemed to not only be logical, but a good plan. As we walked along and saw many different flowers and colors we were just amazed at the beauty. Then as we tried to continue our path, we would look left or right and see some more gorgeous flowers and become distracted going in a different direction than the plan. Oh no, how will we see everything if we keep getting distracted?

We tried our best to keep to a plan and cover this oasis of flowers, trees and water without missing a thing. I think it worked for the most part as we did see the whole park.

Light pink flowers on a tree

The eyes struggled to take in all the vibrant colors and decorative patterns. There were some many reds, pinks, whites, oranges, purples, yellows that the photos here don't do it justice. But this is a good collection of the many flowers and trees we saw.

Flowers around the lake

A mural of flowers in shape of typical dutch buildings

A well colored path

These fields go on and on!

Fields of flowers behind the garden and some rowing

The duck and his pond and water fountain

Vision was not the only sense that was engaged in the garden. As you might image, the smells from these flowers and trees was splendid. Sometimes overwhelming, and other times a sensation you wanted to get more of it, so you stopped to "smell the roses."

One big shoe and I match in my rain jacket!

Just your size, Penny

Penny is a beautiful as the flowers!

Nice fountain in the lake.

Selfie by the lake

An old Netherlands boat and windmill

We were at Keukenhof on Dutch Heritage Weekend, which meant we saw some extras that aren't normally there; dutch costumes, singing, dancing, and clog making.

A group of musicians

Singing traditional Dutch songs

Handing out eel in their traditional Dutch outfits!

No wooden toe shoes, but a horn shoe!

The wooden clogs

There were two entrances and you could tell when new people entered the garden because they would exclaim how beautiful the flowers were. After 3+ hours we had seen everything and couldn't believe we almost didn't go due to the rain. So happy we decided to go and believe it is definitely worth the trip whether you are a tourist or live in the Netherlands. Spring time when the flowers are blooming seemed ideal!

I have made a blog post of just photos of the close ups of some of the flowers and their bright colors if you are interested.