Keukenhof Flower Garden

After visiting the flower auction, we headed to Keukenhof to visit the flower bulb garden. Mom, of course, was in heaven among all the flowers.

Here are my favorite photos from the day:









The rest of the pictures can be found here.

FloraHolland Flower Auction

Last Tuesday Mom, Tony, and I traveled to Aalsmeer to visit the largest flower auction in the world, at the largest commercial building in the world. We arrived just before 8am to a flurry of activity - over 125,000 transactions take place there every day.

We watched the Dutch auction on the big screen, as buyers with everything from notepads to multiple computers bid on the day's fresh cut flowers. The going price for a tulip was around €.04 a stem - that even makes my 50 stems for €5 at the market seem like a steep price!

Next we walked around the cat walk over the distribution floor and watched as flowers were moved around in a way that resembled a scene from Ants.

It is amazing that these flowers come from around the world every night, are auctioned off the next morning, and reach the shops in your town the next day!

The Weather

What a difference a week makes! Last week - even last weekend - temperatures were in the mid-40's. They've been slowly creeping up since then and we're now at the crescendo: 66 °F and sunny! This naturally has everyone very excited. Restaurants have expanded their outdoor seating - and people are already out enjoying their meals and drinks in open air. The city center is more abuzz than normal with activity. Today at lunch the Aula cafeteria at TU Delft was virtually empty because everyone was eating while sunning themselves outside on the grassy knoll (aka the library). The grass is green, daffodils are blooming everywhere (with tulips to come), the birds are singing... this is why people put up with the dreary Dutch winter!

Tulip Bike Ride

We're breaking now from our regularly scheduled programming (a recap of Ireland and St. Patrick's Day) to bring you something completely different: pictures from our bike ride today through the tulips fields between Haarlem and Leiden.

We set out this morning on a 40km bike ride in abundant sunshine to see the tulip fields and Keukenhof Gardens. Even though the fields of tulips weren't quite blooming yet, many were colored with assortments of daffodils and crocuses.

About halfway through the bike ride, we pulled off to visit the amazing Keukenhof Gardens. While outside the tulips weren't yet in bloom, the huge conservatory buildings (named after Dutch royalty) housed a beautiful selection of tulips, crocuses, daffodils, orchids, and other flowers. The grounds of the gardens were magnificent and I can't wait to go back with my mom in a few weeks to see them in full bloom.

Of course, we also had to stop in the petting zoo to see the new baby lambs. Aren't they cute? The baby kids, as in goats, were a little more skittish and wouldn't let people pet them.

You can find the rest of our pictures from the bike ride here.

Almost Tulip Time...

They say the tulips start blooming in mid-March. I can't wait!

Tulips Matt brought me home from the market.

What could be more appropriate when shut inside an apartment in the Netherlands with the wind howling outside and winter weather approaching, than sipping a glass of La Tulipe merlot day dreaming of spring and tulips?