River Cruise, 2015 Day 2 - Keukenhof Gardens

Day 2 in the Netherlands was a very wonderful , but busy day, so I am dividing the blog into 2 parts.  We left the boat in Gouda at 8:30 a.m., and went by coaches to the famous Keukenhof Gardens, which has more than 7 million tulips,hyacinths and daffodils in over 32 hectaresof gardens.  On the way, we saw great fields full of tulips and other flowers, and on arriving at the gardens, were given a lovely picnic lunch to eat where and when we wished.  We were so busy wandering and taking pictures, we didn't eat it til we were back on the coach! 

One of the beautiful fields of flowers we saw on the way to the gardens.  

I took 100's of pictures (I know you find that hard to believe!), and it was so hard to choose which ones to include.  Here is one of my favorites.

Here is Paul, trying hard to fill these wooden shoes, faithfully carrying our large lunch, which he had put into one bag.

There were lovely, gracious swans swimming in  one of the water features that were scattered throughout the park.

So pretty!

So many colours and varieties!

Don't know what this is, but it sure is lovely!

There is an orchid house in the park, with every variety of orchid you could imagine!  There were places in this building where I'm sure wedding parties came for photos.

There were paths - and people - everywhere through the park!  It is open for only 8 weeks of the year, so you can imagine how many people would be there.  There were a kazillion buses!

Although tulips are predominant, there were lots of other flowers as well, including this lovely daffodil.
While the tulip is native to Turkey, it is now the prized possession of the Netherlands.  They have the largest variety of tulips, and their bulbs are considered to be the best available. 

 

Now that's a "really big shoe"!             There is a windmill that you can climb up into to see the tulip fields.  We did!

 

 I would have liked to do this, but settled for taking a picture of someone else doing it. 

Like many places these days, there was a bit of a petting zoo.......

.....and you can't have a petting zoo without some goats! 

This proud peacock had 3 peahens to impress, and it was very nice of him to do this when we were standing right there!

This made for a very colourful display!

These are Linden trees, which are trimmed way back, then trained to make a shady hedge.  We saw them everywhere in Netherlands and Belgium!

One of my favorites! 

Coot on a nest. 

A young lady in a royal Dutch costume of bygone days. 

Another of my favorite type of tulip.  I bought a box of 24 bulbs at the airport on the way home, and they are some that could be planted now, to bloom in 4-5 weeks!

"Just" a mallard, but oh so beautiful!

We found that more people do this with their wooden shoes than wear them, although we did see a farmer working in his field one day wearing them, and Jeremy assured us that they are very comfortable.

Til next time.......