Europe The Netherlands

Seeing The Spring Flowers at Keukenhof Gardens

May 2, 2017

Field of Hyacinths at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Keukenhof Gardens

One of the main reasons that I wanted to visit The Netherlands during the spring, is because of the famous Keukenhof Gardens. They open for 2 months each year while the tulips are in bloom, and for the rest of the year, they dig up every bulb, plan the design for the next year and replant every bulb ready for opening the next spring.

Each year they plant over 7 million bulbs, ranging from tulips, daffodils, hyacynths and any other spring bulb you can imagine. It’s so crazy walking through it and seeing just how many varieties of different plants there are!

This year, there is a total of 700 varieties of tulips planted in the gardens. I mean, who even knew there were that many different types of tulips?!

Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandTulips at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandDaffodills at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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It was definitely a little overwhelming when we first arrived. There are literally people everywhere in the gardens, and there was just so much to take in. I honestly didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was, but I guess when you visit somewhere that’s only open for 2 months a year it’s going to be a little crazy.

There’s two entrances to the gardens, and we went in via the extra entrance at the back of the gardens. There definitely wasn’t as much to see there, so it wasn’t a great first impression. Once we started getting lost wandering through the flower beds, we came across a few more interesting things though.

Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Flower Displays at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandDaffodills at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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Daffodills at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Hyacynths at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Spring Flowers at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandWindmill at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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The Windmill

One of my favourite parts of the gardens was the windmill. You could see it from most of the park, and it had the most amazing view over the field of purple hyacynths! Although it’s not that tall, the view from the top platform was so nice! It’s a shame that you can’t get into the fields, but I guess with the amount of people that visit the park, it’d ruin the experience a little.

You can also get boat rides here too. There’s a little booth to buy tickets from, and then the platform is infront of the windmill. I wish we had enough time to take a little boat trip, as it would have been nice to see it from a different angle.

Windmill at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Windmill at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Field of Hyacinths at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandField of Hyacinths at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandPink Acer at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Flowers at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Dutch Music Player at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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Dutch Music Player at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Dutch Music Player at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Dutch Fairground Organ

Oh my gosh. I loved this thing! We could hear it as we were getting closer to it and wondered what it was. Turns out it’s an old mechanical pipe organ that played music from perforated music books. From what we could tell, it had drums, organs, and percussion playing.

The books were fed into the organ by the organ grinder person, and the pages of the book would flip, be read by the organ and the music would play, with the music that had been read, folding back up into a book at the other end.

I was so amazed by it and must have stood there for about 10 minutes listening to it playing. It even played Bad Romance by Lady Gaga at one point haha!

Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Tulips at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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Orchid at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland
Orchid at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

Flower Display at Keukenhof Gardens, HollandFlower Displays at Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

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There was also a few huge greenhouses in the gardens too. One of them had the biggest collection of orchids I’ve ever seen in so many different colours. And the other had what seemed like every variety of flower in the garden, plus a few extras. I was in my element wandering through there!

After that, we headed back to the van. It’s absolutely huge so it took us a few hours to walk around. I’d say you’d need at least half a day there, but be sure to get there early. We arrived around lunchtime and it was packed!

Oh, and I’d recommend the mackeral salad there! Best thing I ate the entire trip, other than the Dutch Apple Pie there too! It was definitely a little overpriced, but what can you do?

Keukenhof Gardens are open 23rd March – 21st May 2017. Entry is €16pp with parking of €6 per vehicle (though, it’s free to park your bike there). You can also get a return bus fare to Amsterdam/Amsterdam Airport for €29/€24 respectively, and takes around 40 minutes to get there.

If you visit Amsterdam in the spring, I’d definitely visit Keukenhof. It’s so overpriced and crazy busy, but it’s worth it just to see how full to the brim the place is with spring flowers. If anywhere knows how to do spring, it’s definitely The Netherlands!

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  • Reply
    Darina
    May 2, 2017 at 7:44 am

    Beautiful pictures! I’ve never visited Keukenhof, I have to do that next year!

    • Reply
      April
      May 3, 2017 at 7:03 am

      There’s still time this year! They’re open till the 21st May 🙂
      xo April

  • Reply
    Melanie Fontaine
    May 2, 2017 at 1:33 pm

    The flowers are so beautiful! I definitely want to visit the Keukenhof Gardens myself one day, it looks like the perfect springtime activity! 🙂

    • Reply
      April
      May 3, 2017 at 7:04 am

      It was so stunning there! I couldn’t get over how many flowers there were! I hope you get to visit soon – it can’t be too far from Germany? Take a road trip!
      xo April

  • Reply
    Kayleigh
    May 3, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    I’ve never seen so many flowers before! This place just looks amazing and beautiful. I’ve never been to the Netherlands before but if I was ever going to go then this would be the first place on my trip list! And that windmill just looks so lovely, would be pretty amazing to see the view from the top of the windmill. Beautiful photos 🙂

    Kayleigh | http://www.anenthusiasmfor.co.uk

    • Reply
      April
      May 4, 2017 at 7:06 am

      It’s amazing isn’t it?! The Netherlands is such a beautiful country, so I hope you get to visit one day! It’s a shame that this place is only open for 2 months, because I could imagine how well they’d do summer plants too haha!
      xo April

  • Reply
    Renee Hahnel
    May 4, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    Woah, those flowers are all so stunning! I have always wanted to go to a flower festival, particularly a tulip one. Sadly I always seem to miss them when they are happening. One day! Thanks for sharing 🙂

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