Tulip Time & Floriade

Tulip Time is mid-April until the end of May, when the Netherlands’ famous tulip fields bloom. Floriade is a celebrated International horticultural event that happens only once every ten years, focusing on innovations in sustainability, gardens, and art. The next Floriade will be in 2022, with the Expo grounds just outside of Amsterdam in Almere.

Tulip Time at Keukenhof

This is a wonderful time to take a riverboat cruise to Amsterdam, to visit the Keukenhof Garden, known as the Garden of Europe, one of the world's largest flower gardens, situated in the municipality of Lisse, in the Netherlands. The Keukenhof garden was begun in 1950 to promote local bulb and flower exporters. The garden stretches across 79 acres and has approximately 7 million flower bulbs – and not just tulips! The Keukenhof is visited by 1.5 million people each year. This past year of course it was closed, but since the garden was still blooming, staff took 23 videos and shared them with the world.

Right now, the planting for 2021 is complete and there are over 800 varieties of tulips enjoying the cold weather, cold weather that is necessary for the tulips to bloom properly. The staff use a method called “lasagne,” in which they layer the bulbs with different blooming times on top of each other so there will be continuous blooms over the 8-week period when the garden is open to the public.

Besides soaking in the beauty of all of those blooms, activities include a Whisper boat ride and renting a bicycle to cycle around the gardens. Children have a garden of their own, next to the Pancake House where they can enjoy the smell and colors of the flowers. There are also a petting zoo and a maze for the little ones. 2022 will be planned by the master gardeners once the 2021 season is completed and this year’s flowers are removed. Floriade began 60 years ago to promote local bulb exporters, similar to the Keukenhof. The focus is on green, food, energy, and health and is being developed to be a new green living area after the Expo. Over 30 countries are expected to join in for this International Expo. Visitors’ experiences are planned to “explore, touch and change”. There will be gardens, innovative gardening exhibits, live entertainment, talk shows, and food. Floriade will look to all the countries of the world to create this model of a future urban town tied to nature, adapted to an everyday lifestyle. For this coming year they have a new 5-minute aerial ride for

those who want to get a bird’s eye view of the park. Also new is The Bobbing Forest, a sustainable life artwork of 20 recycled sea buoys filled with 20 Dutch Elm trees. There will be an arboretum that will be an alphabetically organized tree, flower, and plant encyclopedia that you can walk through. The Garden of Peace will be participating, building a green, sustainable livable city where

Watch footage of the "Bobbing Forest" by clicking on the image above.

Visitors of Floriade will enjoy a spectacular 5-minute ride experience from an 850 meter-long ropeway on the Floriade cable car above the park.

Immerse yourself in the arboretum’s greenery: a living catalogue of trees and plants.

people with diverse backgrounds and cultures live together, addressing education, architecture and the economy of nature in their pavilion. A Growing Airplanes project has begun with the local University and aircraft manufacturers to develop aircraft parts based on horticultural waste – the results will be seen at the Expo in 2022!

Travel

River cruises offered by Ama Waterways are a perfect match for visiting the Keukenhof garden and the Floriade Expo, as their European River Cruise ships have been recognized in 2020 with Green awards for their sustainability using fuel-efficient engines, microfiltration and onboard recycling and energy-saving LED lighting. Experience both once-in-a-lifetime events while sailing on the Rhine and other Dutch and Belgian waterways. There are nine different itineraries to choose from. Ama Waterways is a favorite river cruise company of mine and my colleagues because of their service, ships, excursions, and dining. I am going on the Tulip Time Cruise, round trip Amsterdam and besides these two important events, we will be visiting the Delta area of the Rhine. The two medieval cities of Ghent and Bruges, Belgium will be highlighted including the art of Belgian chocolate making with a master chocolatier before we head to Antwerp and Rotterdam. Two UNESCO sites, the World Heritage Site of Kinderdijk, the village with the country’s largest concentration of windmills, and the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp are available for exploration during this trip. An excursion to Delft or a bicycle ride past the windmills can be done as options. While in Antwerp flower lovers and gardeners can roam through Floralia, an annual spring flower show featuring approximately one million bulbs that are hand-planted each year by the castle staff. Other excursions are offered at your choice of a gentle, moderate, and active pace. If you prefer, a custom land-based vacation can be built! 2022 is next year, so even though many have put off travel in 2020 and 2021, 2021 is the year to book The Netherlands for 2022. n

Lisa Martin, Travel Advisor, Luxury Cruise Specialist, ACC, Cruise Planners; Land and Cruise 860.929.0708 lisa.martin@ cruiseplanners.com TotalTravelToday.com