In May 2014, I embarked on a big bus trip in Europe. My first stop was Amsterdam, but my real goal was in fact the Keukenhof park. I had seen pictures online and it just seemed magical. I so wanted to see the tulip fields! In fact, that’s probably what motivated me in the first place to organize this trip.
From London To Amsterdam And To Keukenhof
From London, I took a night bus and spent part of the night looking at the moon on a ferry. In the morning, when I arrived in Amsterdam, I was exhausted. I met a British girl and we tried using a pedal boat, but mostly ended up annoying the real boats because we really didn’t know how to steer it. On the next day, I got a little bit sick because of the previous lack of sleep. I spent a few days visiting the city and doing walking tours with great people.
At the end of my stay, I finally took a bus to Keukenhof. I had a ticket for one specific day and that’s why I didn’t go as soon as I arrived in Amsterdam. The bus trip takes about an hour and a half, so I went there early.
Discovering The Keukenhof Park
I wasn’t expecting anything special apart from tulip fields, but Keukenhof is much more than those. It is actually a really big park, you can definitely spend a full day there. The park has greenhouses with all sorts of orchids, ponds circled by tulips and other flowers, windmills (of course), a labyrinth, giant clogs to take pictures of yourself, places to eat…
In the end, I walked a lot on big and small paths, I took hundreds of pictures of flower beds. Someone took pictures of me with the giant clogs (yes, I am a bit ashamed). It was fun! However, I was a bit disappointed because May was actually a bit late for the tulip season and a lot of flowers were not in tip top shape. I don’t remember exactly why now, but I know that I had no choice and I could not have come earlier. And anyway, I was in Keukenhof, I had made it on my own and I was pretty happy about that. Remember, it was one of my first big trips. Plus, the park is so big that I could totally find enough stunning flowers to make me happy.
One advice though: before you organize your visit, if you really want to see the tulip fields, check if they are there when you plan to go.
A Boat Around The Tulip Fields
I finally found the small pier from where the boat was departing. The guy who was steering it told me that unfortunately, the tulips had been removed a few days before and the fields were empty. No matter, I decided to do the boat trip nonetheless, to enjoy the calm of the water, and to laugh about coming here to see the tulip fields and not seeing them. Most of the people in the boat with me were in the same situation and were laughing too. After all, the boat trip was not too expensive, it was pleasant and the park was beautiful.
It concluded nicely my day in Keukenhof, and I slowly walked to the exit, still taking pictures of every flower I saw.
Not my most fascinating article, but it gave me an excuse to post photos of flowers. 😉
Keukenhof park is closed right now, but you can visit it virtually: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqvitLp1vxIcb5QrcUgEA7w
To see more photos of the Netherlands, you can visit the Netherlands gallery.
