Cultural Passport: Holland
There is nothing that screams “spring has arrived” as fresh flowers. You can smell them wafting in the air—wisteria, lilacs, roses. A symphony of colors, shapes, sizes, and scents all intermingling together remind me that winter has shed her coat, donned her sundress, and let all her beauty radiate through. Nothing embodies this more than visiting Keukenhof Gardens in beautiful Holland, and that’s the next stop on our virtual passport around the world.
A little brief history about the Netherlands before I dive into Keukenhof.
The Netherlands literally means “low country” in reference to its low-level topography. Only 50% of its land is above sea level. It’s home to the greenest and most lush grass I’ve ever seen due to the extraordinary water table. The water is also what lends to the iconic windmills you think of when you imagine Holland. The people of Holland have learned to rely heavily on not only the water but also on their ability to harness and manipulate water, giving them an interesting system of levies, dykes, and dams throughout the entire country. While traces of civilization can be dated back to pre-historic times and the Netherlands has experienced its fair share of cultural turmoil, it’s now a constitutional monarchy with a culture rich in tradition.
One of my “bucket list” items was to see the tulips in Holland, and we couldn’t have timed our kids’ Spring Break for a better time. The Keukenhof Gardens are only open from March through May each year, and we were able to visit in the middle of April.
Originally the plot of land where Keukenhof resides in Lisse, South Holland, was the 79-acre estate of 15th century hunting grounds. It provided the herbs for the Countess’s kitchen. Keukenhof literally translates to “kitchen garden.” After the Countess’s death, the property changed hands until, finally, the local Lisse government decided to take ownership and transform it into a garden.
Keukenhof is now one of the largest gardens in the world with more than 7 million flowers that welcome more than 800,000 people each year for the short eight weeks it’s open.
What I loved about walking the grounds more than anything was knowing the amount of work and effort involved. We rode a tour bus an hour outside of Amsterdam to get to the gardens, and it included a video briefly describing the man-hours it takes the 40 gardeners employed by Keukenhof to present what the public sees each year.
The precision, the care, the beauty, the serenity all lent to make this the most fantastical sensory-overload destination we have ever been to and one we’ll never be able to forget.
