2007 Rhine River Cruise:   Keukenhof Gardens (Amsterdam)

Saturday, April 21st Keukenhof Gardens is in Lisse, Holland approximately 25 miles southwest of Amsterdam.  After lunch on board the Viking Sun, we boarded buses and headed out to the gardens.  The gardens are only open 2 months of the year, from late March to Late May.  We happened there right in the middle of "the season".  Weather had been unusually warm, thus virtually everything was in bloom, in fact, some had passed their prime. History of name from www.keukenhof.nl: "Where Keukenhof is situated now, was a hunting area in the 15th century. Herbs for the kitchen (keuken) of the castle (aka court thus 'hof') of Jacoba van Beieren were also collected here; hence the name Keukenhof."  Refer to the website for more information. We had such a short time at Keukenhof, we only had the opportunity to visit perhaps 10-12 acres of the some 80 acre park.  Ahhh, to have had another 4 or 5 hours to explore!

We've had lunch on our boat (docked across the...	Just on the other side of the harbor was the Muziek...	A closer look at the bridge reveals it to be a walking...	A couple of harbor police boats sitting "at the ready"!	Along the way we seen lots of tulip fields.   ...
And here was one of red.    Many of the flowers...	This field had stripes of many colors.	Ahhh, we know we're almost there when we pass the Lisse...	And here we are, about to go through one of several...	Our first look at what we were about to see.
Tulips, hyacinths and swans.	A beautiful bed of tulips and muscari.	A closer look at the tulips.    A camera just...	A bed of bright red tulips. We learned tulips come in...	Red and yellow tulips.
Steps through the rows of tulips and muscari.	It's not all bulb plants, in this planting the tulips...	A closet look at the colors of the tulips in front of the...	Glorious bright red tulips have a different shape than...	And here's a wide open yellow tulip.
Behind the bright yellow tulips are daffodils.	Looking at a small slope where azaleas, tulips and...	Tulips and emporer's crowns.	While the primary plantings are the various types of...	These look more like poppies than tulips but a close look...
This planting is either made to resemble a tulip or a...	A different view of the bell / tulip shaped garden with...	Double yellow tulips.	Another different colot of tulip.    The...	A look across several plantings and paths.
Like a river of yellow and white daffodils flowing down a...	Another sloping garden, this one shaded not only by the...	Beautiful hyacinths with a fountain in the background.	This planting is somewhat in the shape of a pinwheel.	Reflections of two colors of tulips.
Gardens everwhere.    This has a couple of...	This is the same garden area as the previous photo....	Varigated pink tulips surround bright yellow ones.	So many vistas and so little time.   Keukenhof...	These plantings are near one of the little streams that...
Perhaps the most unique tulip we saw.   It was...	Open tulips and buds be behind them.    The...	Close-up of a red tulip.	And looking up to catch the light through a tulip....	A close up of a few muscari stems.    These are...
Inside one of the pavilions, the only one we had time to...	The begonia display included some very unusual colors.	Of all the places we visited in the gardens, this was a...	Another view of the same pond area.	This has muscari arranged in a pattern that looks like a...
This is a panoramic view of the pond area.	An even closer look at the muscari blossoms.	Tom standing in the garden trying to figure out what to...	A different section of the little pond area.	A daffodil lined stream.
Looking at our favorite little pond area from a different...	Down one of the little paths we found this little...	Being totally fascinated with the waterfall, it's...	Miniature versions of tulips, muscari and other bulb...	Gorgeous golden daffodils.
These, they called "ice cream".    The next...	From this angle, they look like fanch little egg cups...	This is a rather unique fountain at one of the other two...	Another unique variety of tulip.    The edges...	A closer look at one of the spiked edge tulips.
Another tulip variety, the flower bulbs are not as...	River of blue flowing into a stream.    The...	Rhodendrum along one of the paths.	A natural stone staircase running up between the tulips.	A pretty little waterfall to add some sound. The sounds...
A little further down the path, we saw a bright yellow...	More tulip and muscari beds.	The shadows make for a dramatic picture of this bed of...	More tulip beds.    Everywhere you look, you...	And, lo and behold, another color of the spike edged...
This frilly edged variety is such a dark crimson that it...	Another glorious view, from the opposite side, of our...	A small bed of tulips on a pedastal.	Stripes of yellow, pink white and red near one of the...	Our time is running short and we're headed back to the...
A beautiful setting of white daffodils along side the...	Back at the gate where our crowd is...	Back on the bus and headed back to the boat, we pass a...	Driving through tulip fields, we pass a field keeper's...	And we pass this train bridge... another marvel of Dutch...
And, we're back at the dock and making the up and over...

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