Amsterdam to Keukenhof gardens
Our Amsterdam visit, a couple of years back, was a memorable one, but was incomplete without the visit to the world’s most beautiful spring garden – Keukenhof’s Tulip garden. This beautiful garden was created in the early 19th century as an ornamental garden for the Castle of Keukenhof.
Millions of colourful bulbs spread over 32 hectares of land is indeed a colourful and a unique experience not to be missed. It attracts millions of people across the world in a short time span in the spring – roughly from last week of March to mid-May.
This year around, the park was scheduled to be opened for public between March 22nd and May 13th. Well, the theme this year was “Romance in the Flowers”. We all know that romance and flowers have close association with each other. This amazing garden not just has the innumerable varieties of tulips but also various other colourful flowers displayed in the most attractive fashion. It is nothing less than a visual treat. If you are planning a Europe trip in Spring, a visit to this garden is a must.
Having seen couple of Indian movie songs featuring the beautiful bulbs in the park in the background, I always nurtured a small wish to visit this park once.
This time around, being in Europe at the right time of the year, we planned in advance for a visit to Keukenhof. Yes. In general, planning a visit in advance is very important to grab the right deal with the flights and accommodation. Things are a little different in the season of tulips though! However early we book, a trip to Amsterdam (and Keukenhof) at this time of the year works out costlier than usual. But yes, planning early does result in cost benefits, albeit small.
How to get there ?
We flew to Amsterdam Schiphol airport from Berlin, Germany in one of the low-cost airlines – easyJet. Flying apart, there are good bus connections too, from the neighbouring cities of Amsterdam, Leiden and Haarlem. There are buses every 15 minutes from these places going directly to Keukenhof.
At the Amsterdam Schiphol airport, once we exit, there are enough sign boards that directed us to bus no. 858 to Keukenhof. Ticket counters are right in front of the boarding point. Keukenhof entrance tickets can be purchased from here as well.
You will find lot of guided tours & transports and “Skip the line” tours online, but the public transportation here is really good and with online ticketing options, you can travel around the Tulip garden more or less on your own. In that sense, I would recommend a self-guided tour. Besides, as people here speak English, you can find your way through.
Now you may think, what about my luggage ?
Yes, most of the tourists at the garden arrive at the Schiphol airport and more often than not, have a small hand baggage with them. No worries! You can either leave your baggage at the airport lockers, or, use the lockers at the main entrance of the Tulip garden, where you can safely keep your baggage for free. Only one point to be noted here, and that is, the lockers at the garden are only big enough to accommodate an average sized backpack or a duffle bag.
Ticketing options ?
We had purchased the Keukenhof entrance tickets online which costed us 17 Euros per head for adults and 8 Euros for children above 4 years of age.
Kuekenhof Tulip gardens
#visitKuekenhof
Purchasing the tickets in advance avoids the last-minute hassles or the long queues at the destination. Nevertheless, the entry tickets are also sold at various travel points, such as the airport or the train / bus stations.
There are several Combi ticket options too from which you can select the one which gives you the best deal. All the tickets sold are the return tickets.
A return ticket to Keukenhof and back (either back to Schiphol airport or Haarlem or Leiden) costs about 10 Euros per head as on the year 2018.
Combi ticket option 1 : costs about 35 Euros for adults and kids alike (above 4 years of age). And this ticket takes care of your travel from Amsterdam Central to the Schiphol airport, Schiphol airport to Keukenhof, The entrance ticket to the Tulip garden and back.
Combi ticket option 2 : Costs about 24.50 Euros for adults and 12.50 euros for kids above 4 years of age. This includes the bus transportation ticket from Amsterdam Schiphol airport (Bus 858) / Haarlem (Bus 50) / Leiden (Bus 854) to Keukenhof, entrance to the Tulip garden and back.
You may select the deal that best suits your itinerary.
The bus journey from the Schiphol airport to the Tulip garden takes about 15 minutes by the bus number 858. There was a long wait at the Schiphol airport to board the bus and the bus was filled beyond capacity with tourists. Thankfully we were the early birds and hence could grab vacant seats for ourselves. My daughter enjoyed the bus journey for about 5 minutes looking out of the window at the colourful nature resonating the colours of Spring. Later she slept off, only to be woken up in 10 minutes at the Tulip garden.
Tulip garden:
We took an early morning flight from Berlin to reach Schiphol airport at about 8.00 A.M. The airport was overcrowded and it was visible that the crowd was here for the tulips festival as the crowd was moving around with us, even at the 858 Bus bay. After the long wait for the bus and the short journey, we reached the park at around 9.40 A.M.
To add to our woes, it rained the entire day that day. Well, we still enjoyed, but yes, we would have spent and explored more there, if not the rains.
We kept our extra bag in the locker at the garden and walked around with a small handbag with some quick eateries, water and of course – umbrellas. As we already had tickets in hand, without wasting anytime, we walked inside the park and just then were awestruck by the vibrant colours which greeted us. None of the photos we captured that day can justify the beauty of the exhibits there. Every flower had a unique colour combination.
Lying in Southern Holland, Keukenhof is one of the world’s largest flower gardens. Being the Kitchen garden, it initially served the herb requirements of the Keukenhof castle. In the 19th century, the mayor of Lisse established this garden in a larger interest – help the farmers across Netherlands to grow and exhibit their hybrids and also help the country’s export industry, Netherlands being the world’s largest exporter of flowers.
Believe it or not, when I entered the garden , I was looking out for the large colourful fields of the tulips as seen in various movies.Well, inside the garden, there is no such large fields but small beautiful gardens of colourful flowers. If you want to have a look at those colourful large fields of tulips, you will have to step outside the garden where you will find many private fields.
Coming back to the gardens, as soon as you enter the garden, there are boxes kept with garden maps, which the tourists can grab for free. In my opinion, maps are an absolute must, given the sheer size of the garden. Without one, it may be difficult to find your way through.
Despite the rains, there was huge crowd. Our routes were decided by the flowers displayed – beautiful tulips with amazing backdrops. The tiny streams with the wooden bridges to cross over, led us to a pit stop “Irene”. We took lot of photographs with the tulips, the clogs (the famous Wooden shoes. In our last trip to Amsterdam, we had visited a clog factory in a nearby village too and heard their interesting stories and traditions). There was a small fountain, an eatery and lot of tulips. Further, we walked through the narrow lanes with colourful tulips on either sides and my eyes missed a blink many a times!
The rain God had showered colours over the already colourful garden giving it a more filtered look. It was an enchanting experience. Infatuated by its beauty I stood still for a while, admiring the tiny little rain drops trickling down the beautiful flowers, the bustling water flowing down the narrow stream and the greenery around.
Further down the lane we walked to another juncture called Juliana. Juliana has lot of exhibits inside along with souvenirs to purchase. By now, the drizzle converted to a full-fledged rain. The 2 umbrellas managed to host the 3 of us and our camera under the rains!!! We walked till the next point “Wilhelmina” viewing the beautiful garden laid in different fashion. We further walked in the direction of another point within the park called “Willem-Alexander”. It was raining heavily and we thought of taking a short lunch break !!!
We managed to grab some French fries (which is called as ‘Friet’ or ‘Patat’ in Dutch. Whatever be the variety of food options you get, the Dutch never get enough of the ‘Patat’), a mixed fruit juice and some local noodles. I felt the food joints were a little over priced for the quantity of the food they served. The taste otherwise was good enough. There were good exhibits of different flowers like tulips, lillies and other flowers inside this place as well.
There is surprisingly a good high-speed internet within the garden too to which you can connect for free. Free wifi is part of the entry ticket.
Further down the route, we walked towards another center called – Beatrix. A straight pathway with colourful flowers on either side from “Entrance Extra” leads to this place. We purchased a couple of souvenirs from here and proceeded further towards the Windmill. If not for the rain, one can enjoy the boat ride from here, lasting for about 45 minutes and taking you around the beautiful garden and fields of tulips. From the top of the windmill, one can get a much better view of the garden and the surroundings. There are lot of play areas, picture points, gardens, variety of flowers and more, which can make anyone fall in love with nature over and over again.
The yet another junction within the park – Oranje Nassau too has few flower exhibits. You can stop over and proceed.
Even if you just walk around the garden, without eating or a photo break, you need atleast 4 hours. That is the minimum you will have to keep aside, when planning your trip.
If you have time, you may even rent a bicycle and go on a cycle tour around the fields. Souvenirs are just materialistic takeaway. The best takeaway from this garden is the colourful memory which will stay with you for a lifetime. We were there until evening and then took the bus to Leiden by bus number 854 at around 3 P.M.
We stayed back in Rotterdam overnight and travelled back home the next day after visiting The Hague and Rotterdam city, as we had skipped them the last time.
Not to miss:
· While in the mesmerizing Tulip garden, don’t miss to enjoy the local Waffels – Dutch Stroopwafels. This variety is quite unique to Netherlands. It is 2 thin layers of baked leavened batter sandwiching a caramel like syrup in between. Looks ordinary from outside, but the taste is just out of the world.
The best take-away from here are the beautiful and colourful memories, no second thoughts here!
· In this season, right from the airport, you will either notice Tulips or a symbolic Delft pottery displaying the windmills or the kissing couples, all in blue. Yes, Delft pottery also known as Delft blue is unique to Netherlands. This blue and white pottery originated at a place called Delft, now popular all over Netherlands. Wow, the paintings in blue over white is simply amazing. The last time we were here, we had purchased a little sovenier – Delft blue clogs.
· Yes, the next unique and most interesting thing about Netherlands are the Wooden clogs. The traditional ones, known as ‘Klomp’ in Dutch are still worn in Netherlands.
During our trip to Zaanse Schans, a small village near Amsterdam, we had visited a clog factory. Apart from the usage by the local people here, which is right now restricted to farmers and the factory workers, Clogs are a major business here, for export. There is an interesting story from this place. In the yester years, marriage usually happened within the village communities. If a guy liked a girl, as a proposal, he would leave a pair of clogs in front of her house. If the proposal was accepted by the girl, the clogs would be taken inside the house, or else if rejected, it would remain at the same place!!!
Clogs are worn across the world and is one of the quite popular form of comfort footwear. Few communities wear it for comfort, whereas, few wear it for fashion.
Though the design and shapes of the clogs are largely dependent on its purpose of wear, what remains common is its ‘Sole’.
Yes, however be the clog, the sole is commonly made out of wood.
Now this reminds me of our very own Indian clog, Toe Peg clog, also popularly called as “Paduka” worn by Hindu temple pontiffs. (The puzzle still remains unsolved every time I look at how the pontiffs walk comfortably with Paduka which has a single support – a peg between two fingers in the toe)
This time again, my daughter couldn’t resist the little clogs, but yes, in her favourite pink colour though!!!
· Last but not the least, yes, you must taste the cheese here. Many of us would have heard of ‘Gouda’ cheese. But did you know that it originated from Netherlands? Gouda, a city in Netherlands is also known as the city of cheese. There goes a joke which says, in Netherlands, there is always a hard competition between the fleet of dairy breeds and tulip bulbs!!!
Don’t miss to taste at least few of the numerous varieties of cheese available here. A visit to the cheese factory will give you an insight on how cheese has blend into the Dutch lifestyle.
Tulips, cheese, windmills, waffles, delft blue and clogs have given Netherlands a unique identity in the world.
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