DAY 43 – "Tiptoe Through the Tulips With Me"

May 1 – Keukenhof Sunshine for May Day

You may be wondering why we started our trip back in mid March with Turkey and Greece and flew to Germany. Our destination was to go and see the tulips in Holland in the spring and we found an inexpensive flight to Berlin. So we were finally here to see the beautiful spring flowers in the most amazing place in the world.

I LOVED this place!!!

• Tulips were imported from the Ottoman Empire and became very popular in Holland in the early 17th century. Nowadays, the Netherlands is the world's first producer and exporter of tulips.
  

• Keukenhof Park also known as the Garden of Europe is the largest flower garden in the world.
  
  
• Keukenhof  plants approximately 7 million flower bulbs every year.
• The park is located in the small town of Lisse in southern Holland, southwest of Amsterdam.
• It's located on 15th century hunting grounds
• It was established in 1949

MAY DAY Traditions   - how lucky could we be to have such a beautiful May Day at Keukenhof?  It had been a long winter and a very cold Spring, so to have a total day of sunshine was welcome for everyone!  I remember as a child we made May baskets and would sometimes give them away.  There were also times when my children were younger that we would make them, put them on the doorsteps, ring the doorbell, then run away.  It was such fun!  It seems that this tradition has faded out in the past twenty years throughout the world, however.

Whatever happened to the May Day Tradition?

The day was a traditional summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of Spring, May 1 was the first day of summer; hence, the summer solstice on June 25 (now June 21) was Midsummer.

The street organ “The Adriaen” was built in 1978 by Hank Heuvel from old organ parts and is named after and old windmill in Haarlem. It has 75 keys, 11 registers, 406 organ pipes and percussion. The organ plays on the perforated system invented in 1897.  This was its 23^rd season playing at the Keukenhof. It was so amazing to watch it work. I could have listened to it for hours as it had many types of music.

“The Adriaen” street organ

The back side with all the songs and showing each instrument being played

 ENJOY all the sights of Keukenhof and imagine all the smells of some of our favorite pictures.  There is a picture of a bee on one of these flowers.  As soon as you find which flower, email me and let me know and when I get home, you'll get a prize!  GOOD LUCK!!

 Wooden shoes for every occasion:

Boots, Skating, For Dress, Sandals

The Dike, The Garden, Fisherman, Smuggle

Rich loved the hyacinths - smelled so yummy!

Yellow and Purple are still my favorite colors

Rows and rows of bulbs planted outside of the gardens

This was a Beethoven statue in a garden named after him....he had a sad life when he began to go deaf.

"Tiptoe through the tulips with me"

Taking a picture through a waterfall into a mirror-reflection.

Resting in the sunshine for a bit

 Good Job Rich for taking such amazing photos - memories for a lifetime......

Thank you Keukenhof for such a memorable May Day