Keukenhof Tulips: A Must-See in Holland

Funny how things work out, right? Thanks to a comment at a family get-together, we were able to check-off one of our Bucket List experiences – seeing Holland’s Keukenhof tulips in all their colorful glory.

Our niece, who spent a semester of study abroad in Austria, wisely spent her long weekends exploring, including seeing tulips in the Netherlands.

Over Easter family dinner, we excitedly announced we’d be sailing on a luxury river cruise on the Rhine. That’s when our niece replied, “You’re going to be in Amsterdam during tulip season.”

Eureka. We hadn’t put together the two – the spring blooming season with our Basel, Switzerland, to Amsterdam seven-night “Rhine Highlights” cruise aboard the Scenic Ruby.

It would be our second river cruise on the Rhine, our first with Scenic, and now, thanks to that comment, our first time seeing those long-anticipated tulips in riotous bloom. Keukenhof, one of the world’s largest gardens with more than seven million tulip, hyacinth and daffodil bulbs, did not disappoint.

The 2018 season had as its theme “Romance in Flowers,” which we took as a sign of destiny for two reasons: First, we not only are travel writers but also romance novelists at our company, YourNovel.com. Second, fellow cruise passengers were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary on Scenic Ruby in the exact area where they honeymooned. And get this: Our rather last-minute outing was dependent on weather. So rather than book an Amsterdam excursion for our final day of the cruise, we had waited—just in case. Turns out, there was a little rain, but not enough to deter us, and the gardens in Lisse would be fairly easy to reach via a train then a dedicated bus. That info in hand, we made our final decision – tulips were a go. That’s when we happened to run into the anniversary couple over breakfast and invited them to tag along....

(Read the whole story here: https://gettingontravel.com/keukenhof-tulips/

Read what else we saw and did aboard Scenic Ruby on the Rhine River in Voyages Magazine: http://voyagesmagazine.com/2018/07/03/scenic-ruby-delivers-perfect-rhine-highlights-river-cruise/