Tiptoe Through the (Green) Tulips

Good day, fine readers!  I have a very colorful post for you today.  Last week, I ventured for the first time to Keukenhof, the huge spring garden near Amsterdam.  If you have a mental image in your mind of fields and fields of tulips (like the background of this blog), you are most likely envisioning fields near Keukenhof.

Now as some of you may have astutely observed, the weather has been a bit chilly so far this spring.  And tulips no likey the cold.  Therefore, the outdoor tulips had yet to bloom at Keukenhof.  It was such a tease to see rows and rows and fields upon fields of green tulips.  However, the trip was still a lot of fun. I went along with the Culture Club, a group here in Eindhoven. It was my first time making it to a Culture Club outing since the other two times were thwarted by a muddy car and a cold house.  We had a group of about 10 or so ladies, and we traveled by train then bus to make it to the gardens.  It was fun to get to spend time with everyone, making the trip worthwhile even though it was greener than we would have liked. 

That all being said, I do still have lots of color-tastic photos to share.  Keukenhof has a handful of indoor pavilions where they host themed flower shows.  So we got to see lots of color indoors.  And there were some early bloomers outside as well.

To add color to the park, they brought in boxes of tulips and randomly placed them on the walking paths.

Crocuses don't mind the cold.

Aptly named.

Here's the photos from the tulip and hyacinth pavilion:

And a few from the orchid pavilion:

A wall of orchids.

Hello ma'am.

The gardens also have a very nice windmill which has great views of the fields of tulips.

The fields beyond the windmill will eventually be full of color.

Wooden shoe boats and heels!  Who knew?

Traditional Dutch organ.

Since we only have one spring living in the Netherlands, Todd and I are definitely going to make it up to Keukenhof since I do not want to miss seeing it in full bloom.

This past weekend the weather did finally warm up for us. It hit about 75 on Sunday!  We had a great weekend filled with a dinner and game night with friends, firing up the grill to make some amazing burgers, a going away party for a friend of mine here (the party was fun, not the fact that she's moving back to the US), and watching the PSV match at a bar downtown. And we even squeezed in time to visit an art exhibit for one of the students in my English conversation class.  Her stuff is quite neat, so here's her website (she's always looking for networking contacts around the world if any of you are plugged into the art community!).  All in all a great weekend made oh so sweet by the springy weather!