Keukenhof bloomz

For the first time I'm feeling like I'd really like to go home, despite all the wonderful people here and the month of amazing travels I have ahead. I miss you. I'm tired, sick, and sick and tired of exam period. So, to assuage this, I will distract myself with images capturing a bounty of botanical color from early May.


Each year with the coming of spring, the Keukenhof tulip gardens open for a magical display several kilometers outside of Leiden.

The Dutch are a wee bit nuts for the tulip, with this obsession beginning centuries ago. In a ridiculous spectacle of man, the first economic bubble was produced by competitive bulb speculators who would bid ridiculous sums for the coveted petals. Apparently according to my Lonely Planet, in early 1637, a single bulb, the legendary Semper augustus, fetched over 10 years worth of the average workers' wages. Dang.

Semper augustus rolls deep

I cycled out to the gardens with a few friends to see what all the fuss was about a few weeks ago.

Rows

World's largest flower garden, 32+ hectares

The bulbs are left to bloom fully so that they are strong during the next growing season. After the flowers die at the beginning of summer, millions of dollars worth of bulbs are exported from Keukenhof annually.

Walking into the gardens

Straight chillin

Sweet dandelion fountain

Check them frills!


She slept beneath a tree
Remembered but by me.
I touched her cradle mute;
She recognized the foot,
Put on her carmine suit, --
And see!

-Tulip, by Emily Dickinson

Bulb worship


THE QUEEN OF NIGHT

Maze

I KNOW, I KNOW, IT WAS ALMOST TOO MUCH!!

Sleep tight, tulips

Noord Holland: Haarlem

Snowdrop flowers, Haarlem

Haarlem is the capital of the Noord Holland province of the Netherlands and has seen everything from the Romans to the Black Death to the Spanish seige. It is a beautiful, positively Dutch city, with the River Spaarne running through the middle of it, leading to Amsterdam. Tulip bulbs agriculture, beer brewing and silk production have all been important industries in Haarlem, which is also the origin of the name NYC's Harlem back from the mid-1600s. Cheers to early Dutch expansionism!

Market in the city center

The Dutch on sandwiches:

Sub-par baguettes, amazing
whole wheat, seed and fiber bread concoctions

Garden nook

Laurens Coster - beat Gutenberg to the printing press?

Slide, canoe, docks on a canal

Kayaking, Haarlem

Zandvoort aan zee, North Sea

Ciao, Haarlem

koninginnenacht + dag

Brought to you by Ellie Thomas

A huge street party with over a million people dressed in orange? Yes please. Every 30 April, the Dutch celebrate Koninginnedag, Queen's Day, celebrating Queen Beatrix's birthday. One might assume that the celebration of a respectable, royal granny would be equally, well, respectable and royal. Incorrect. Millions of people participate all over the country, with hundreds of thousands decending upon Den Haag for the Koninginnenact, Queen's Night, pre-party, and then to Amsterdam for the festivities the following day.

For two days, the Dutch train system grinds to a choking point, people hawk all their old crap from their attic in what starts to look like a giant, national garage sale, the city center is packed with live DJ performances, partiers dance the day away on techno boats in the canal belt, beer wagons appear at every street corner, people rave in the street, and old men skinny dip in the canal. The Vrijmarkt, or Free Market where people line the sidewalks with second hand goods, takes place because the Dutch government allows sales without tax solely on this national holiday. Kids sell their toys, grandmas sell their teacups, students sell the use of their toilet in their flat.

Apparently, the Koninginenacht celebrations began some years ago as a way to officially promote partying instead of the violent annual riots that broke out in the streets the night before Queen's Day. This year, a troubling indecent happened the day of Queen's Day in Appeldoorn, about 60km from Amsterdam. A man who had been recently laid off from his job and was to be evicted 1 May drove his car into a crowd of holiday revelers, killing 5 in his attempt to hit the jumbo bus carrying Queen Beatrix. The car then veered down the street, eventually crashing into a monument, killing the driver. It was a bizarre event, and very saddening. Some performances and festivities were canceled in some cities after hearing about it. We heard about the indecent around midday on the streets of Amsterdam, and one of the larger DJ performances was cut short in the city that evening. However, the somber event was overcome with orange - for the day at least. The confetti swirled, the balloons popped, the drunkards fell.

One of Leiden's windmills wrapped in the
colors of the Dutch flag for the occasion

Drum line in Den Haag

Celebrating in Den Haag with some Jersey kids
I learned that this bar, Ned Kelly's, was named for an Aussie cowboy-type hero

Orange beer, Den Haag

Queen's Night
Fabian, Switzerland & Melissa, Texas

National garage sale

National Blowout

DJ Tiesto

Queen's Day, Museumplein, Amsterdam

Museumplein, afterwards

Man in the canal, missed several opportunities
to catch him mooning boats on camera

Traffic jam under a bridge!

Boat cruise with a fog machine & techno beats ... yesss

Leidensplein, Amsterdam

In the infamous orange leotard

Orange streets

Orange Hawaiian jacket ... and a dead fox ??

Orange balloon

€1/egg toss

Oranjegekte = Orange madness