When I once visited the Chateau de Villandry, a petit, cozy castle in France's Loire Valley in early April this year, I was certain I'd see one of the most marvelous gardens in the world, or at least in France.
But in fact, though spring has come, the garden wasn't yet in full bloom with colorful, beautiful flowers, and sadly, I needed to wait until summer to see more beauties of the Villandry.
But a month later, I could certainly console myself, for I made a five-day trip to Amsterdam, The Hague (the Dutch call it Den Haag) and to Keukenhof, the world's largest flower bulb park still deemed the most beautiful spring garden in the world - or so the Keukenhof booklet concluded.
It was a sunny Saturday when I visited Keukenhof. I spent about 45 minutes on the bus from The Hague to Leiden - the city famous for its university, and then another 30 minutes from Leiden to Lisse, in the province of South Holland where Keukenhof is situated. There was a direct bus from The Hague to Keukenhof, but unfortunately it only ran on weekdays.
Keukenhof, as I had imagined it, was packed with throngs of tourists. But it was understandable. First, it was the weekend. Second, it was around Easter. Third, Keukenhof opens its gates for only two months, from March 19 to May 21. And fourth, perhaps the most important reason, this year Keukenhof celebrated its 60th anniversary.
Happily, I didn't need to queue for a ticket, since I had already bought one the previous day at the tourist information center at Amsterdam Central Station when I visited the city. Keukenhof at first glance was packed with souvenir shops and caf*s selling hot and cold drinks and various snacks, including the small, sweet Dutch pancakes poffertjes. One caf*, named Caf* New York, reminded me instantly of the garden theme this year: "USA, New Amsterdam - New York, 400."
It was not a coincidence, because since in 2009, Keukenhof wanted to commemorate Henry Hudson's discovery of the Big Apple in 1609 while in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He set foot that year on what is now Manhattan, and New Amsterdam was established. Later, the name was changed to New York.
On the Keukenhof site, general manager Piet de Vries said Keukenhof aimed to emphasize the ties between the Netherlands and the United States, as well as pay tribute to its many American guests.
"We enjoy enormous interest from visitors from the States. The number varies, but it makes up 11 percent of the approximately 840,000 people we welcome every year," he said.
For this reason, there was a wonderful 23-meter by 15-meter flower mosaic of the Statue of Liberty, using more than 500,000 bulbs. Some interesting facts about New York: the city uses Americanized Dutch words. The nickname Yankee for an American comes from the Dutch name Jan Kees. The city of Harlem was named after the Dutch town of Haarlem. Flushing Meadows, home of the US Open tennis major, got its name from the city of Vlissingen.
A thematic garden was effectively started in 2006. Later each year, the themes differed, depended on people or events to commemorate or celebrate. In 2006, the garden marked the 400th anniversary of legendary Dutch painter Rembrandt's birth. In 2007, Keukenhof commemorated the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. Last year, the Olympic Games and China were the natural choice.
Delving into the word Keukenhof, it literally means kitchen garden. Over and above that, the history of this superb garden dates back to the 15th century, to a woman named Jacoba van Beieren, countess of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Henegouwen from 1417 to 1433. She was the owner of the area where Keukenhof is now located, and in her time, Keukenhof was still an untouched wilderness, used for hunting and gathering herbs for the castle's kitchen.
Referred to as a tempestuous woman, she married four times, spent a few years in prison and lived for some time in exile in England. One of her favorite pastimes seems to have been waging war. In 1433, she was forced to abdicate from all of her counties. Withdrawing from public life, she died in 1436 at the age of 35 of tuberculosis in Castle Teylingen, not far from Keukenhof.
After her death, the large estate was sold to several wealthy merchant families, including the Baron and Baroness van Pallandt. They later asked landscape gardener Zocher to design a garden around their castle. The English landscape garden was created in 1857 and is still the foundation of the park today.
When Keukenhof opened its gate for the first time to the public, it had 40 exhibitors, and the result was an immediate success, with 200,000 visitors. Now, there are around 93 exhibitors with 825,000 visitors from all over the world. Instead of being the largest flower bulb park in the world, Keukenhof has several other claims to fame.
It is the most photographed place in the world, and has the largest, most famous flower parade in the world, known as Flower Parade of the Bollenstreek. The annual parade goes along a 40-kilometer route from Noordwijk to Haarlem and then to Keukenhof.
This year, Keukenhof provides an area of 32 hectares, covered in tulips, daffodils and all other spring bulbs. Strolling around Keukenhof, I was so astonished to explore what I could perhaps describe as paradise gardens.
Walking was a complete joy when I found myself surrounded by millions of diverse flowers united into various forms. Flowers in miraculous blue, red, yellow, pink, white, orange, purple and even black, all stunned my eyes.
In fact, Keukenhof introduces many different gardening styles too, from the historic garden with flower bulbs like old tulip species, to the renovated Japanese country garden.
For children too, there is an exciting labyrinth and a playground.
At Keukenhof, there are more than 2,500 trees in 87 varieties. The 30 horticulturalists who work there plant 7 million flower bulbs by hand! As for the tulip itself, Keukenhof has 4.5 million of them in 100 varieties. And something new in 2009: there is an easy-on-the-eyes Walk of Fame made from tulips. Indian actress Aishwarya Ray, Dutch swimmer and four-time Olympic gold medalist Inge de Bruin and Prince Willem-Alexander are among the lineup. Funnily, there was even a yellow tulip named Donald Duck.
To get immersed more into the tulip world, there is a tulip room in the Oranje Nassau Pavilion. There are four other pavilions named after queens and princes of the Netherlands in Keukenhof. Wilhelmina Pavilion serves as the Keukenhof's office. Juliana Pavilion houses the Flower Power hat exhibition and a painting exhibition by Dutch painter Ton Schulten, whose works are of landscapes in bright blocks of color.
Inside the Beatrix Pavilion, there is a 1,000-square-meter space specifically for orchids and hundreds of exotic flowers. The Willem-Alexander Pavilion is the nest for the biggest lily show on earth and an exhibit of the 60 years of Keukenhof.
While I was busily musing over a bunch of fair flowers, it seemed a bit odd to see two women and one couple dressed up in ancient noble haute couture as they took a promenade in the garden. In fact, that day, Keukenhof held a traditional costume festival known as klederdrachtfestival. Many tourists were overly excited to see these noble figures, and more than a few took photographs with them.
Not far from Beatrix Pavilion is a mill that is also a visitor favorite. Visitors can reach to the top, which means they can climb to the balcony, and from there they get a very nice view of the flower garden. The history of the mill began in the province of Groningen. The mill was built in 1892 and first used as a polder draining mill. The mill was brought to Keukenhof in 1957 and has now been there for the past 52 years.
And now, though the flower feast at Keukenhof has ended, there will be another small sequel in mid-October.
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