Ask for the world's finest flower gardens and the Netherlands' Keukenhof joins Dubai's Miracle Garden and the gardens of Versailles on the list. Known as the "Garden of Europe", the tulip garden draws visitors from around the world, the Kolkata daily Ei Samay writes.
Tulips share the beds with many other flowers, above all daffodils and garden hyacinths. This hyacinth is not the water hyacinth familiar in Bengal but a fragrant flower in blue, yellow or pink, alongside the blue grape hyacinth. Rows of tulips fill the fields outside the garden too, and two song sequences of the Hindi film "Silsila" were shot there.
April is the best time to see the tulips. The garden opens from mid-March to the first week of May, from 8am to 7pm. April weather is unreliable and rain can come any day, so the piece advises packing warm clothes and an umbrella.
A Keukenhof shuttle bus leaves from just outside arrivals at Amsterdam Schiphol airport and takes half an hour. From Amsterdam Central station, metro line 52 to Europaplein connects with bus 852. Tickets are not sold on the bus and must be bought online beforehand.
Garden entry tickets also need booking well ahead, with sales opening in mid-October, so planning for next spring's tulip season starts now.
The piece is from Ei Samay, by Debarghya Bhattacharya.
Photo: Corwin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)
Source: Ei Samay
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