Netherlands Keukenhof Holland, May 2017

[JustTravel]

During our stay in Brugge in the spring/summer of 2017, we took a five-day side trip to Haarlem specifically to visit Keukenhof. I booked and printed out the combination bus/entrance fee ticket to Keukenhof. The ticket was not specific to any day, so we could choose any day we wanted. Once we arrived in Haarlem on May 7th, I looked at the weather report for the best day to go and chose Tuesday, May 9th. A good choice as it turned out, since it was the only dry, sunny day during our stay.

We walked to the Haarlem train station to catch the bus in front of the station.

It was a fairly long walk from the park bus stop to the park entrance.

This trip report will be mostly photos. They speak volumes.

On our way......

 

[JustTravel]

I read that the pavilions can get really crowded, so we decided to visit the pavilions first. So, we visited the Orange Nassau, followed by the Willem-Alexander and then the Beatrix.

The Oranje Nassau pavilion

This pavilion was pretty empty of people.

 

[JustTravel]

The Willem-Alexander pavilion

Photo opportunity to wear a floral wedding dress but not for me -

Looking out one of the many windows -

Again, hardly anyone around.
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Then off to the next pavilion -

More people at 10 o'clock.​

 

[JustTravel]

The Beatrix pavilion was my favorite. I love tropical flowers.

 

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And then there is the windmill -

........a popular place.

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Afterwards we enjoyed the outdoors -

 

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And more tulips plus -

 

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And the ponds -

 

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Some of my favorite flowers -

 

[JustTravel]

The Keukenhof website is a great resource.

 

[Chris]

Lovely photos!

 

[Cameron]

Wow! Gorgeous!

 

[JustTravel]

Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Keukenhof in May and would love to go back for another visit.

 

[Eleanor]

I have enjoyed looking at all your wonderful pictures. How did you manage to take pictures in the pavillions without people getting in the way? When I visited there were huge queues in the Oranje Nassau pavillion of people wanting to take selfies of themself in front of the cow...

 

[JustTravel]

Eleanor, I guess we got lucky. We went on a Tuesday and we were at the Oranje Nassau pavilion at around 9:30 and hardly anyone there. The Wilhem-Alexander pavilion was also fairly empty of people but the Beatrix was more crowded but still not as bad as I anticipated.

 

[Eleanor]

That is one of the advantages of getting there early. It was probably turned 11am by the time I got to the pavillion. It was also Easter so the crowds were doubly bad....

 

[Wendy Ashworth]

Beautiful photos, thank you. Happy memories too as we visited the same year but a couple of weeks earlier.
We thought it to be the " Finest Spring Garden in the World ".
We arrived at 8 am and were glad we did as we had the "Heritage Daffodil" display to ourselves in one of the pavilions we went in. That in itself was simply wonderful.
The tulips were in their prime. My husband declared it to be a piece of heaven.
We went on to see the carnival floats parked up in one of the small towns, Haarlem I think which was terrific as there were no crowds and the flowers were still in wonderful condition after their 40 km parade the day before.
I'm planning returning this year but sadly on my own as as Richard died last April.

 

[JustTravel]

Enjoy your return visit, Wendy. I am sorry your husband won't be with you.

I would love to revisit Keukenhof. I would love to share it with my mother and sisters.