Easter Weekend: Part 2: Flowers!!!

Off to Holland and the World Famous Kukenhof Tulip Festival.

A pheasant watched us leave.  We made an agreement with the minions, if they would take a nice picture first, we could take a silly picture after that.  It worked very well.

Time for shoe cuteness!

And now for the hundreds of flower pictures.

We stopped frequently for pictures of the minions as well.

Well why not?

Watching the swans.


The designs of the garden change every year.



We didn't realize how many varieties of tulips, hyacinths, and other bulb flowers there were.

Or that they get unusual names.



For those wondering, that is a teether in her mouth, not a pacifier, that is 'Bink Dragon'.

Learning about the history of tulips in the world and how they came to Holland.

The boys were having to answer quiz questions on the things they were learning.


Tulip Mania, it was really a thing.  Crazy what people will do sometimes.

More school lessons.

Learning about different bulbs and looking up odd registered Tulip names.

This was an impressive mechanical music machine.

Mama tries to run away with a cart full of flowers.


Dutch cheese!

In honor of Van Gough, they had a garden plotted out with his self-portrait.

Sadly it wasn't blooming yet.



It was the very beginning of the season, which is also noted by the storms that kept coming up.

Checking the sky, thinking the next storm looks pretty bad.


Time to rush through the labyrinth and see if we can get to the center before the storm.

The view of the tulip fields.  In a few weeks they'll be full of blooming flowers of all colors.

For now though they are pretty drab and ugly, but hey we saw them.  Now back through the maze.

The rain had started at this point.


The following would have looked cooler if Papa had realized it was meant to line up into a picture frame.  He did not align it though since he missed that fact.



Look I'm in a Van Gogh painting!





So many flower beds to walk by.






Windmill in Holland overlooking tulips while being hailed on.  Yay!

View of internal mechanism.

The windmill was actually turning.


Did we mention the storms and hail?  Windmills are cool...but don't block weather well.



Chilled to the bone, we went to the indoor greenhouse to look at the many varieties of Tulips showcased there.  This worked great to warm everyone's bodies and spirits.



Everyone picked out their favorites. "Marrero" Tulip for Chubbly.





Rigas Barikades Tulips.

"Cosmopolitan" Tulips, Princess Lumpy's favorite.

Yes there were other plants such as these lily pillars and the candy-scented lilacs.

The sheer size of this variety had us all in awe.



So many no longer were even recognizable as the tulips they were.

The orange and yellow ones are called "DragonBall" Tulips

"Triumph's Choice" Tulips, Dash's favorite.

Lady Hummingbyrd loves tulips...period.

"Fosteriana Cacharel" are those pink furry ones...they stink.

"New Christmas"  one of Grins favorites.





"Exotic Parrot" tulips were surreal in how much they looked like feathers not flowers.

Papa and the "Triumph Flying Dragon" tulips.

Grin's official favorite, "Orange Ninja" tulip.



Mama's favorite...is still lilacs.

Photo-bombed by Chubbly.

Cherry blossoms!

The sun was setting and the park was closing, time to start heading back toward the Silver Dragon.




So much was seen and done, now one last time in the shoes before we're done.

A quick hop across the road to see Kukenhof Palace.



The Minions all slept on the way back to our rooms, which meant they missed the Blood Super Moon.

We couldn't get the camera settings right, but it was huge and red as it rose into the sky.

What a fun way to end a fun day.  Next post...Xanten!  From Flowers to Roman Ruins, here we go.