{"id":41822,"date":"2019-05-21T18:01:08","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=41822"},"modified":"2019-05-21T11:02:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T16:02:00","slug":"our-latest-tulip-tour-of-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=41822","title":{"rendered":"Our Latest Tulip Tour of The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently spent three weeks traveling and bicycling in Europe.\u00a0 We hit up five countries, but our first week was spent in my favorite country, The Netherlands.\u00a0 We try to get there every year to soak in the beauty, quaintness, and history.\u00a0 This year we specifically chose to go the third week of April because we were told that is the best time to see the best tulips.\u00a0 I am excited to tell you about our latest tulip tour of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

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\"Tulip<\/p>\n

We can probably sum this trip up in four words:\u00a0 bicycling, boating, blossoms, and bronchitis.\u00a0\u00a0 Yes, unfortunately, that last “b” reared its ugly head, and I went down with a bad case of bronchitis which kept me cabin bound for a few days.\u00a0 I’ll get to it more later.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

We started out our stay in Amsterdam which was looking just beautiful.\u00a0 This year marks the 350th year since Rembrandt’s death, and the city is celebrating his life.\u00a0 The Rijks Museum was hosting a special Rembrandt exhibit, and I spent a morning there enjoying the exhibit along with many permanent collections.\u00a0 It was my first visit to the Rijks.\u00a0 It was closed for several years for an extensive remodel, and I just couldn’t fit it into our travel schedule on my other trips.\u00a0 It did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

That afternoon we boarded our home for the week.\u00a0 Our cycling trip was combined with a sailing trip on the Leafde fan Fryslan.\u00a0 It was my first time on a sail boat, and it was exciting.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

(source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

We were mainly in the northwest part of the country and even on the North Sea.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

One of the things I love about The Netherlands is the charming towns and villages.\u00a0 It’s not unusual to have a town with a canal running down the middle of the main street.\u00a0 They just built beautiful buildings around those canals.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

They are also not deterred by a canal in the front yard.\u00a0 They just landscape around it.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

One of our Dutch friends told us that the best week to be in the Netherlands for tulips is the third week of April.\u00a0 Like all growing things, the blooming is dependent upon the weather.\u00a0 If you get there too soon after a cold spring, the blossoms might still be in the bud stage.\u00a0 Get there too late, and the blossoms might be finished.\u00a0 And it’s important to know that the tulip fields are not in the entire country.\u00a0 Certain regions are better for growing tulips and bulb plants than others.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

We made our third visit to the Keukenhof,<\/a> and it was once again tulip perfection.\u00a0 The Keukenhof<\/a> is a large park devoted to tulips and other bulb plants.\u00a0 Bulb farmers get to show off with the layout and designs, and it is spectacular. It is open to the public only two months each year during the spring.\u00a0 To say it is crowded is an understatement.\u00a0 Imagine people from all over the world trying to see the flowers.<\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Tulip<\/p>\n

In the middle of the week, I was blind sided by a horrible case of bronchitis.\u00a0 Thankfully, an Italian internist was on our boat, and he took my illness to heart and really gave me excellent care.\u00a0 There was also an American in the medical field who just happened to bring along an antibiotic that would help me.\u00a0 I was too sick to cycle the rest of the week, but I did manage to walk to a cheese auction one morning.\u00a0 This was the historic cheese auction held every Friday in Alkmaar.<\/p>\n

When our cycling trip ended, we started the second leg of our trip, which was a visit to Baden Baden, Germany.\u00a0 It is the home of my husband’s ancestors, and he wanted to see it.\u00a0 What a beautiful city!!!\u00a0 I will tell you about it next.<\/p>\n

Take care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We recently spent three weeks traveling and bicycling in Europe.\u00a0 We hit up five countries, but our first week was spent in my favorite country, The Netherlands.\u00a0 We try to get there every year to soak in the beauty, quaintness, and history.\u00a0 This year we specifically chose to go the third week of April because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":41829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41822"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41838,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41822\/revisions\/41838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}