Spring - the season in a year where the cold of winter gives way to light breezes and a little bit of sunny warmth. Being here now, and given the chance to experience a cold hard winter, Spring (known in Dutch as "Lente") gives the impression of hope; seeing the green in trees and bursts of color in flowers that are blooming in gardens and along the roads.
And springtime in Netherlands is a spring very blessed with hordes and hordes of Tulips! Blooming in patches of green along the expressway, in unanticipated areas of the city centers, in personal gardens and sitting pretty in vases in homes.
I was lucky enough to get to tag along on a day out with Jimmy's colleagues Harald and Udomreip, who was visiting from Thailand. And it was so sweet of Jimmy and Harald to take the weekend to show Udomreip the magic of Spring in the Netherlands before he left for home.
There's something called a TulpenFestival (Tulip Festiaval) that allows residents and visitors to see the fields of tulips either by car or by bicycle mapped by a preplanned tulip route.
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| The tulip route for visitors with cars |
And here are some photos we took of the tulip fields.. They're like a sea of color! Harald told us that these tulip are are planted in bulk in these fields so that they can be harvested for their seedlings which will be sold to consumers the following year. Meanwhile, while the tulips are in their prime, visitors from all around the Netherlands come to appreciate their bloom. And so, instead of hocking it with the masses of tourists in the famed Keukenhof, we get to experience what the locals experience :)
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| Fields of Purple, Red and Yellow |
Check out the contrast of the yellow field against the looming dark clouds... We were lucky that the clouds cleared after a while to give way to bright blue skies.
And these following photos were taken at the an area set up for visitors of the Tulip Festival where volunteers handed out booklets containing information on the participating fields, the vehicle routes, and some flower bulbs for personal gardens. There were masses tulips in all colors, shapes and sizes in this area with their respective names displayed.
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| Tulips in all colors, shapes and sizes! |
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| Against the horizon |
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| Such Vibrant Colors! |
The tulips and their names:
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| Apricot Beauty |
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| Jumbo Pink |
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| Rambo |
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| White Heaven |
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| Christmas Exotic |
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| Christmas Dream |
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| Candy Prince |
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| Sugar Prince |
And there were a whole load of others that I did not manage to take.. But you can imagine that it was almost magical that we get to see so many colors in one field.
And of course, after indulging in the beautiful colors of the tulips, we decided to indulge a little for the sake of our tummies and so we just walked across the path to a little cafe that was a participant of the tulip festival. Coffee, cakes and tulips! A good mix, I'd say...
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| Two men debating the origins of a wooden tulip |
All in all, I thought that the organizers for this festival did a wonderful job of allowing visitors experience the beauty of the Dutch Spring through tulips. And if I have the chance, I think I will try to persuade Jimmy to go again next year :)
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| Salute! |
