Keukenhof Gardens – Netherlands

This week’s journey takes me back to one of the world’s most spectacular spring displays:  Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. Located in South Holland – south of Haarlem and southwest of Amsterdam – the so-called “Garden of Europe” is a bucket list destination not to be missed!

Keukenhof dates back to the 15^th century, when Countess Jacoba van Beieren (Jacqueline of Bavaria) gathered herbs, fruits and vegetables from the Keukenduin (kitchen dunes) for the kitchen of Teylingen Castle. Keukenhof Castle was built in 1641 and the estate grew to encompass over 500 acres. The castle gardens were redesigned by father-son landscape architects Jan David and Louis Paul Zocher in 1857; those gardens, arranged in the English landscape style, still constitute the basis of Keukenhof Park.

In 1949, twenty leading flower bulb growers and exporters developed a plan to use the Keukenhof estate to exhibit spring-flowering bulbs. The park opened…