Europe 2026 – Day 12 – Keukenhof

We woke at the usual time, but the coach that had been arranged to take us to Keukenhof didn’t leave until 10. This gave me time to continue working on yesterday’s blog. I also worked on it on the coach when the scenes weren’t too distracting.

I took three videos out of the window of the bus as we were leaving Amsterdam.

The Westergasfabriek buildings have been repurposed as Amsterdam’s cultural Park. The buildings looked beautiful from the bus. The gas that once lit the streets of Amsterdam was produced on this site. The buildings were constructed around 1885 in the Dutch Neo Renaissance style. 

The second two videos are of apartment buildings that we walked past on the bike path side of the buildings when we were staying at the Teleport Hotel (which we passed on the drive) last week. I find them appealing looking buildings, for their height, bulk, windows, and colour.

The drive took about an hour. There are fields of flowers, all around the formal gardens.

Keukenhof is only open for eight weeks each year, and receives over 1.4 million visitors to view the over 7 million flowering tulips, daffodils and other bulb flowers in spring.

There were already a lot of people there when we arrived. It was very well organized with coach parking in one place, and car and bike parking in another.

We had already purchased our ticket months ago so we were able to walk in quickly with the QR codes on our tickets. The lines to purchase tickets were quite extensive.

Our tour guide told Dayle that she might be able to get a wheelchair there so she could continue resting her Achilles tendon, and she was right.

I have so many beautiful images that I’m going to group them into categories and put them in as a slideshows between text. We decided to stay together, and were for the most part surprisingly successful given the number of people.

The gardens were enormous and in three hours, we did not get through them all. I forgot to put on Strava right away, but this drew in where we walked before I started recording. This image will show you the ground we covered and what we missed. You can see that even in the Netherlands, where many people travel by coach, train, and bike, parking lots can exceed the space needed for the attraction they are built for.

It was very well organized. There were ropes at about knee height around all of the gardens and people were very respectful about staying on the paths.

I took a video of the stunning open area near the centre.

Despite the crush of people, it was sometimes possible to get pictures without any people or too many people in the way.

Keukenhof dates back to the 15th century. “Countess Jacoba van Beieren [Jacqueline of Bavaria] (1401-1436) used ‘Keukenduyn’ [kitchen dunes] as hunting ground for the kitchen of Teylingen Castle. Keukenhof Castle was built in 1641 and the estate grew to encompass an area of over 200 hectares.”

This young woman is dressed Countess Jacoba.

Landscape architects Jan David Zocher and his son Louis Paul Zocher, who also designed Amsterdam’s Vondelpark, redesigned the castle gardens in 1857. That park, in the English landscape style, still constitutes the basis of Keukenhof.

In 1949 a group of 20 leading flower bulb growers and exporters came up with the plan to use the estate to exhibit spring-flowering bulbs, signaling the birth of Keukenhof as a spring park. The park opened its gates to the public in 1950 and was an instant success, with 236,000 visitors in the first year alone. 2024 was the 75th edition of Keukenhof which has become  a world-famous attraction.

There were many places to buy many types of food, and tulip themed souvenirs, which were spread out nicely so they weren’t overly crowded despite the crush of people. This was a coffee shop with tables and views of the fields beyond the formal gardens.

There was a lineup to climb up the windmill, to sit in a clog, or a boat, or to push a comically large wheelbarrow, but none of us chose to wait to do those things.

We ate sandwiches that we made at breakfast as we’ve done all week. We found seating near the opposite entrance to the one we used. There were rustic boxes of tulips in the area where we ate.

Our group of seven dwindled to six when Wayne scooted off after lunch to cover more ground. At one point, we ran into Melanie and Brooke, who advised that we must visit the Willem-Alexander Pavilion. We were thankful for the advice because it was stunning.

There was a gift shop inside the pavilion and one of the things they sold was tulip shaped purses a small one was €200. The bike was hanging in the main entrance gift shop.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to visit two other pavilions. There is also a 45 minute boat tour one can take. Orange step-thru rental bicycles are available for touring the area.

We saw a cargo bike full of maps, and ice cream being sold from another bike.

We returned to the bus at 2:15 PM. Wayne and Alina bought some delicious fries and mayonnaise on the way out.

A couple of people on the bus asked if they could be dropped off in Haarlem. After consulting with the office, our tour guide decided they could do that, as long as the couple took the train back to Amsterdam. So we had a preview of Haarlem, our destination by bike tomorrow.

The day off the bike worked well for Dayle, who thinks she’ll be able to ride tomorrow. And it worked well for me because I’ve been suffering from headaches for the last few days, but that ended this morning, hopefully for the rest of the trip.

Here’s a final slideshow of my remaining favourite images from the day.