2022.04 Amsterdam weekend, Keukenhof and Rijksmuseum Part 4

2022.04 Amsterdam weekend, Keukenhof and Rijksmuseum Part 4 – Keukenhof

Every spring, millions of flowers take center stage at Keukenhof where visitors get to take in the ocean of colours, sizes and shapes. Upon arriving at the front gates, it’s obvious that this is an impressive place to visit.

Planning and Location

Keukenhof is a major tourist draw, taking place over eight weeks in the spring. Typically it starts in mid- to late March and concludes sometime in May. At its core, Keukenhof is a trade show for producers to show their wares. Sprinkled amongst the many gardens are buildings that complete the trade show part, and outside is the creative expression possible with planting millions of bulbs from the prior fall.

Purchasing tickets to Keukenhof is easy via their website. When purchasing you’ll have to select a date and entrance time, to meter the quantity of visitors. Transportation options can also be purchased, being a bus from a few places from the area, and ours, traveling from Schiphol airport to the show. (I cannot recall, however like most venues tickets are not refundable)

Keukenhof is located 15-20 minutes away from Schiphol airport. It is possible to walk, bicycle (this is the Netherlands remember!), drive or take transit to it. For us, it was the bus option. There are dedicated bus routes during the event that run from a few places nearby cities and Amsterdam, including Schiphol airport. Buses run frequently, and they are well equipped with USB plugs to charge your phone. As well, when taking the bus you arrive closest to the entrance, to save your walking for the grounds and not the parking lot.

Just Gardens?

Once inside, the focus are the gardens. There are lots of them, and the flowers seem to have been planted on top of each other, as the flowers are clustered together to make the visual impact even more impressive.

Each garden has a description of the plants on display. We arrived in the afternoon of a clear, brisk day, and it was busy. What was most entertaining to me were people who were trying to get their pictures to work for social media. The quantity of people who were kneeling, crouching, or even lying on the grass beside the flower beds was comical. As much as I wanted to laugh at any who might fall, I didn’t want any to step, trip or fall into the gardens.

A few more pictures from outside, even some tree were beginning to bloom during our visit.

Really just Gardens?

No. There are several things to do while on site. It is possible to view neighbouring fields, in case one didn’t have a window seat when arriving via Schiphol during daylight hours:

The parking that was included in the above picture was probably a 15-20 minute walk to the entrance. (Just another plug to consider public transit to spend your walking time in Keukenhof, not its parking lot)

As well, with the canals around the fields, it is possible to pre-purchase a canal tour that will take you on a scenic ride around the park and its canals. Given how chilly it was, I’m glad we didn’t opt for that.

There was a small petting zoo we found during our visit.

Keukenhof is not devoid of food and drink options. For those who brought their own food and snacks there is a picnic area. For visitors like us there were several huts serving drinks, including hot chocolate that was needed during our visit, and a restaurant. We skipped having food here as we’re hungry during our visit. We really made sure to have our fill of Dim Sum before visiting here.

The variety of flowers with their different shapes, and colours kept our interest as we walked through the grounds. There was a building that seemed to only have varieties of Orchids. It was a popular building, because it was the only heated building at Keukenhof.

Trade Building

Arriving at the trade building there was even more varieties! Here was the opportunity for growers to showcase special, and unique flowers in a set area for each grower. The name of the plant and the grower were prominently displayed in case you wanted to buy some bulbs for yourself. And that was the downside being from North America. There are strict rules on what can be brought imported. Although locals were flipping through a catalogue, the plants available for import to North America was confined to a mere pamphlet offering varieties that are already easily found at home.

Another stand-out to me were the variation in size of the plants. Some were tiny, and other were massive, bigger than I had seen before:

Also I never thought flowers could have such dark and an intense colour:

With our legs tired from walking, we decided to return to our hotel. We could have stayed for another two to three hours until closing, but we were tired.

We returned to the shuttle bus pick-up area and were on our way back to Schiphol. Before transferring to our bus to the hotel, we made use of the shopping plaza at Schiphol and grabbed items to make a simple dinner after we returned to the hotel. Already having had a hot meal at lunch, salad, cold cuts and buns were just fine.