Blog 60 – The great thing about having no plans –

Is that you can make plans at the very last minute.

It is not news that the Netherlands has been in lockdown for months, and its not news that residents are getting tired of it. But, what to do?  In response to these questions, the Dutch government decided to see if its possible to have “Covid-free” events. https://dutchreview.com/news/visitors-allowed-keukenhof-large-scale-events-netherlands/ We decided to participate.

News that Keukenhof Gardens would be part of the pilot program came out the evening of Wednesday, April 7, 2021. By 11:00 pm we had secured two of the only 5,000 tickets for Sunday, the 11th; plans were made, suitcases dusted off, Covid tests were scheduled, taken, and uploaded to the required app.

Even though Keukenhof (https://keukenhof.nl/en/) is about 45 minutes outside Amsterdam, and even though it is only open eight weeks a year; it is still on every “things to do in Amsterdam” list. If you like flowers, or gardens, or walking, or even just eating and people-watching, this is a place to go. We had been before, see https://lindasjourney.net/blog-11-mokum/ , but had always hoped to return. The Dutch Covid pilot test was our opportunity. Yikes! I forgot to include a like to one of Keukenhof’s weekly videos: https://youtu.be/njfAd3SMGGA

We are not sure how the government’s tests are working out; we have not seen any data, we were not personally asked for any follow-up; but if they did ask us, we would say it was great! Two days gave us time to walk around the flower fields, visit Keukenhof Castle (https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/destinations/provinces/south-holland/keukenhof-castle.htm) within the Keukenhof Forest, (https://www.zuidhollandslandschap.nl/gebieden/keukenhofbosch) visit the Gardens and rent a Twizzy to go even further into the fields. For last minute plans; they worked out pretty well.

A fellow visitor to Keukenhof took this picture of Andy; Andy taking pictures.
The Bed and Breakfast in Lisse, was over the best bakery in town. Just our luck, yummy.
The winter has been cold, so there are still plenty of daffodils in the fields and gardens.
Even I was in the fields
Keukenhof Castle in the Keukenhof Forest. The gardens were originally the kitchen garden for the castle. It was not open for touring, but the grounds were open and beautiful to walk around.
The LAM Museum is a modern art musuem on the castle grounds. You can walk through the middle and look through the glass walls. Close enough to modern art for me – it did not need to be open.
Inside the Keukenhof Gardens. The tulips were just coming up, but we had plenty of daffodils and hyacynths – it smelled wonderful.
And, we had flowering trees and lots of water features too.
Andy on the (wooden) lilly pads
Flower Power was the theme in 2019, the last time the garden was open. Flowers are still the power.
Hyacynths and tulips

Keukenhof Gardens also has multiple pavilions and centers. Because of Covid, only one pavilion was open the day we visited. It is almost impossible to take a picture of this display. It is at least the size of a football field with row after row of meter square example tulips.

One of the most photgraphed windmills in Holland, right here in the garden
After the Gardens, we rented a twizzy to go around more of the flower fields – yes, it is as uncomfortable as it looks. 🙂

3 thoughts on “Blog 60 – The great thing about having no plans –”

  1. Hi Linda! You are very lucky to have experienced Keukenhof in the spring for the second time. Tom, Jim, and I visited in 1980, and I’d love to again one day. Have you been able to receive Covid vaccinations in the Netherlands? Tom and I were lucky to receive ours a few weeks ago, and we are now just “fully vaccinated”.

    1. Hey Liz,

      I continue to say that Andy and I are the luckiest people that our friends know – so true as we reach spring in Amsterdam.

      The Netherlands specifically and EU in total has been very slow with vaccine distributions. But, we both received our first shots last week. Because we fall in different age groups, Andy got the AstraZeneca with a 12 week spacing between shots. I received the Pfizer. We will both then be fully vaccinated mid-July. Can’t happen soon enough. So glad to learn you are both over this hump.

  2. Hi,
    Beautiful flowers and pics. Love the post card. Glad you guys were able to assist the government in their experiment :)).
    Vicki

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