Last week I went to a place in the Netherlands where most Dutch people have never set foot: \u00a0the Keukenhof, a huge, heavily landscaped flower park outside of Amsterdam.\u00a0 At the entrance, a Dutch flag hangs alongside a German one, and inside the last thing you are likely to hear is the sing-songy tones of our favorite subject, here \u2013 the Dutch language.<\/p>\n
I imagine that for some of the more far-flung visitors to the Keukenhof, the floral treasures inside are a sheer exotic pleasure: if you\u2019re visiting from India or East Asia, a single tulip, not to mention thousands of them, is likely to be a kick.\u00a0 If you walk to the edges of the park, you can look out over the fields full of tulips that are harvested for their bulbs.\u00a0 These blankets of color are one of the loveliest things Holland has to offer, but they are short-lived.\u00a0 By now most of the color is gone.<\/p>\n
The Keukenhof is an odd tourist attraction in some ways:\u00a0 after all, they\u2019re just flowers.\u00a0 But the space is pleasantly designed with a typically Dutch sense of tidiness and order.\u00a0 Brush, sculpted into cones and mazes, gives a bit of an Alice in Wonderland feel to the whole thing, aided by patches full of African violets that you can sort of imagine springing to life and breaking into song.\u00a0 Big warehouse-like greenhouse spaces, named for members of the Dutch royal family, hold orchids and strange accompanying set-pieces, like mannequins dressed in evening gowns and wearing pageant sashes naming them for species of orchid.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d recommend the Keukenhof to tourists, but it seems like they are already getting the message, so I will recommend it instead to Dutch readers of the blog, who may have stayed away out of that special stigma that keeps natives far from those sights that, for whatever reason, cry out to be seen<\/em>.\u00a0 This floral paradise might be just the way to while away a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, perhaps with your dog, who will be happy to be allowed inside.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week I went to a place in the Netherlands where most Dutch people have never set foot: \u00a0the Keukenhof, a huge, heavily landscaped flower park outside of Amsterdam.\u00a0 At the entrance, a Dutch flag hangs alongside a German one, and inside the last thing you are likely to hear is the sing-songy tones of…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2011\/05\/elena_tulips-261x350.jpg\")