Travel by Photos to Keukenhof Tulips Garden, Netherland part 1

I’m facing the biggest challenge ever in my blogging journey. I’ve never come close to this before. I know I need to decide. When I blogged about travel by photos to one destination, I used to select only those photos that are the most relevant, exciting and beautifully taken and included in the article. Normally only half of them are usable. But not this time. I’m facing  a really hard time in picking photos that I shot in Keukenhof Tulips Garden. Why? I shot over 200 photos in the garden and they are all too beautiful to be dropped! The reasons are: 1) there are beautiful subjects; 2) there are gorgeous natural sunlight, and 3) there was a versatile DSLR lens. Tulips in the garden were fantastic and colourful. Under the perfect skylights and with helps from the flexible zoom lens Tamron SP10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens, all photos taken in Keukenhof were simply amazing to me! So I decided to break this post down into 2 parts to include more photos here while still keeping the article reasonably short and intact.

After all the nonsense above, here is the actual stories… 🙂

Being the largest tulips garden in the world, Keukenhof Tulips Garden is the must visit destination in Spring. It opens to public for only 2 months in a year during the blooming season of tulips between March to May each year. The garden is located in Lisse, a small town in southwest of Amsterdam and is easily reachable by bus within an hour. Netherlands is one the biggest exporters of tulips in the world and tulips cultivation fields could be seen around Lisse and Keukenhof. By the end of May each year, most tulips in the field will be exported.

This year, Keukenhof Tulips Garden is open to public from 24th March until 20th May, 2011. Opening hours is from 8AM until 7:30PM in the evening. Admission Tickets can be purchased at the entrance at €14.50 for adults and €7 for children aged between 4 to 11 years old. On the 16th April, 2011, there would be a special flower parade in the garden.

Official opening Keukenhof 2011 to be performed by Mrs Bettina Wulff, wife of the German President Christian Wulff. Germany Land of Poets and Philosophers is the theme for Keukenhof 2011.

In the afternoon of Wednesday 23 March, Mrs Bettina Wulff will open the Keukenhof International Flower Exhibition in Lisse, accompanied by her husband Christian Wulff, President of Germany. The theme for Keukenhof 2011 is Germany: Land of Poets and Philosophers.

In 2011, Keukenhof will bring its first spring greetings to Germany. The international flower exhibition has chosen ‘Germany: Land of Poets and Philosophers’ as its central theme for next year. This is not just a tribute to our most important export market for bulbs and flowers, but also to our many tens of thousands of visitors from Germany. Statistically speaking, Germany is the largest individual country of origin of the approximately 800,000 visitors welcomed to Keukenhof each year. Around 20% of these come from the east.

Nature awakens; slowly, first of all, with winter snowdrops, but then with ever increasing speed. The buds on the trees turn green. Branches sprout, sometimes intertwined with one another. What still felt cold a week ago is now tending towards being on the cool side. In the mornings, the frost makes way for mist. The sun rises higher and higher in the sky. A downpour seems out of place and storms in March almost unheard of. And then, all at once, the first common grape hyacinths appear. By the afternoon, there are already five, and the following day, the first sea of blue bulbs appeared. Your heart skips a beat, and now you know for definite: spring is here! And where better to experience the spring than at Keukenhof? See spring in all its splendour for two whole months.

Further information could be found in Keukenhof Tulips Garden official website

What you can’t find in the official website is all the flower scenes in the garden and what you could expect in the garden that is as large as 60 football fields or 32 hectares in size. Don’t worry. I’ve been there in year 2010 and here are some of the photos to show you that. Photos would be split into 2 posts though… 🙂

Before starting the tour, you can rent one of these audio guide from the ticketing counter.

Once entered the garden, visitors would be greeted with a fountain fish pond with souvenirs shops and cafes at both sides.

There is also a kiosk selling Dutch waffles by a beautiful but cool dutch lady. 🙂

There are too many different tulip species on show that I could remembered the names. This is the purple variant.

And this is the pinky orange species.

Is these one of the tulip species as well?

Siberian species.

I love this species deep orange colour.

They are from Russia…

Girls must love this tulips with milky white colour.

The Keukenhof garden is planted and decorated with all types of tulips with perfect flower arrangement.

You can find these tulips arranged in various patterns in the park.

White tulips. I love this also. The garden is so huge that you could get lost easily if you don’t read the signboards along your way.

There are many detour options that you have to make sure where you are going.

The easier and best way is to follow the main pedestrian walk way, but you won’t be able to see all of them. So, read the maps carefully as you go.

So many names displayed here. So which is which you think?

I love this shot. Tulips, trees, garden, pool, wooden bridge and people.

Jean loved these pinky tulips. Pose for a shot, honey!

Here are some other breathtaking tulips flower arrangement in Keukenhof garden captured with my Nikon D60 coupled with Tamron SP10-24mm Ultra Wide Angle lens. Enjoy!

Click HERE for all photos above and more in full size via Flickr.

That’s not all! Part II of the stories will be coming shortly. There would be more beautiful tulips to show next. So keep watching this place for more. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog