Kuykenhoff Gardens

Tulips! No, not the acronym associated with  theology, but the beautiful cupped petals above a slender stem. Single petalled, double, Rembrandt and botanical...and all in one place-- Kuykenhoff Gardens!  Those of you who know me know that flowers take me to  my "happy place!"  I tell you now,  I was in such a state of happy, I could not contain it! I walked into the garden to the tune of a caliopy playing jaunty music,  the smell of waffles wafting through the air,  and a beautiful display of  spring flowers of so many colors, an artist's palette could not hold them all! I got goosebumps, I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and I was speechless. I looked at Sam and I think he thought I was losing it! (Those of you about the same age as me probably realize that much of this intense emotion is due to "the change"! )   He looked bewildered, and then he realized HE HAD DONE GOOD! booking this vacation! 

The gardens are laid out in beautiful designs, using tulips donated by growers. All of the tulips are HAND PLANTED each year with a different theme. The theme is decided on depending on the bulbs they are given. We are talking millions of bulbs!  The gardens are only open 6 weeks out of the year. The rest of the time is spent preparing the beds, planting, growing and maintaining the grounds. There are ponds, waterways, a windmill, a children's play area, several green houses where they grow the fancy and botanical specimens. There are also food stall set up in a couple of areas...selling Belgium Waffles, Cotton Candy, and other food that is probably better for you--but you can see what I was going for! Ha.

We spent the day there-took the bus to the train station to go to Leiden and then took a bus out to the garden. Along the way, the fields were resplendent in their stripes of red, pink, orange and yellow tulips, and the pastel shades of the hyacinth-pink, purples, and whites.  From the air, it looks like a crazy quilt!
We had a few sprinkles, but we were prepared with umbrellas and jackets. The weather was cool-a nice reprieve to the heat of Cairo!  I took hundreds of photos and if you would like to see more pics, you can visit this link to my FB photo album.

You may see a little paper guy in some of our photos...He is Flat Stanley, an elementary school project one of my neighbor's nephews was working on. There is a story about a little boy who winds up being flattend by a bulletin board. The good thing about this accident is that now he is flat, and can go anywhere. We took him along on our trip--he has been all over the world with different people. If you  were to be his guardian, your responsibilities are to keep him safe, take photos of him in different places, and be the pen to his journaling. Then you send him and his photos and journal back to the child who entrusted him to complete strangers in his trip around the world! It was fun!