Keukenhoff!

Wow! This place was amazing, I've never seen so many colors, some of them so vivid it's hard to describe. Reds so deep that the entire bloom is just a blur, combinations, variations, patterns, it was an awesome experience. And I am such a flower guy.... not. :)

We did a tour package purshased in the city about 2 blocks (unless you follow Tom-Tom's directions) from Amsterdam Centraal. It was a little pricey, but it included the bus to the gardens and back, and the admission ticket, so we were able to avoid the long lines and the insanity of parking - ok, yeah, we didn't drive out, but still.

We had a couple of options on the tour, a shorter one which was a couple of hours and a longer one which was almost 6 hours in the gardens. When we chose the longer one I was really wondering what the heck we were going to do in a tulip garden for almost 6 hours, but it turned out to be exactly enough time for us to stroll comfortably through, stopping to look at the beautiful beds of flowers and to enjoy all the different visual and olfactoral nuances that are Keukenhoff.



It's a little sad that the experience is so fleeting, but the gardens are only open a few weeks each year, so, if you can, plan your trip to Europe in the Spring. It's a little cool at night still, but you won't regret the visual experience of Keukenhoff.

We weren't in Amsterdam very long, well long enough for me to stubbornly follow Tom-Tom's directions until we very nearly missed our tour, a story best untold, but what we saw walking to and from the tour office and along the bus ride was lovely.



And then there was this amazing parking structure, three levels, for bicycles!

Ya gotta love Europe, I know I do.

I have a few more pictures of the garden, maybe I'll add a slide show if I can get Mrs Murphy to show me how, she's way more blog-savvy than me.