tulips, Tulips, TULIPS!

 

One of Lady Hiva's bucket list items was to see the tulip fields in The Netherlands. WE have seen the tulips in Turkey and the spring curated fields in the United States. But they are nothing compared to the iconic fields of color in the Netherlands. Lady Hiva was worried that it would be too late to go see the tulips after I got back from Turkey. But we went the last week of April and it was amazing! Some of the tulips were already done, but so many were still there. We took SO many photos! (this blog is LONG haha). 

We started our time with a trip to the Tulip Experience. It is in Lisse and near the Keukenheim Gardens, but this was more of a family farm and less curated.  Not to mention so much cheaper. It was perfect for us. We were able to walk through a museum of tulip history and then spent several hours wandering the rows and rows of flowers. 

It was cool to read about the way Tulips made it through the Ottoman empire to the Netherlands. They talked about how the name comes from looking like a turban. 

The tulips came in all shapes, colors, sizes, and shapes. 

We then drove around the tulip loop. It is a several kilometer driver around the farms in the northern part of the country. It was beautiful. We stopped and stopped and stopped. So many photos. So many colors. 

WE stopped and watched them de-head the tulips to prepare for storage for the next few months. and then winterizing them. Lady Hiva thought it was blasphemy that they were cutting off perfect flowers.