Keukenhof, Netherland USO trip

At the end of the month of April, I was asked to escort a USO trip to the Keukenhof garden and Tulip Parade. When I went to pick up my package, my boss even told me that I could bring a friend!! OH BOY!! Whoohoo!! So I asked my new BFF C. to come along with me. And off we went.
It was (I will tell you the truth) a LONG trip. About 7 hours + bus ride. Welkom Keukenhof is located near the North Sea on the North Western part of the Netherlands.
Keukenhof mean “Kitchen Herb”, in the 15th Century it was part of the Hunting Park of the castle of Jacoba Van Beieren. Then after her death it was acquired by a Baron who hired an Architect to design a huge “English landscape Garden”, it is still the same now. However it was also use for the longest time to show off the bulbs of the Dutch Market and became popular because of that.

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It is now a beautiful garden that opens only for the “bulb/tulip” season and every year the landscape architect design over 100 new designs to plant. The gardeners of the estates will take out all the bulbs that are planted out, and will replant them following the new design. So no matter if you went last year, it will be a new garden next year and the year after.
During the morning we drove to Noordwijk for the “Bloemencorso Bollenstreek” it started in this little town Noordwijk, Netherlands - Google Maps next to the north sea, it was packed. Buses parked everywhere. Just amazing!! Something that we laughed about was the fact that they had lots of people on bicycle, and that you betta watch out, cause they will ring their little bell and ride on you if you are not quick enough to get out of the way. I just love the Dutch language, it is what I will call a mixture of German, English and Flemish (Which I am not sure what mix of language Flemish is) so it is very hard to understand if you never studied it. I mean, I am French and I can understand a few words of Italian or Spanish, but send me to Germany or Netherlands, and I am just LOST! LOL!

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OK back to the topic. If you have the chance to be in Amsterdam during the month of April… Go visit Keukenhof, it was just amazing. I was disappointed of only ONE thing. The fact that my camera couldn’t catch the smell of all those flowers in that garden. just unbelievable.
Here as always, pictures that I took. Hope you enjoy them.

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