9th April 2017
From Amsterdam, we travelled to a campsite in Noordwijkerhout so that we could visit the Keukenhof gardens the next day. We were lucky with the weather which was a sunny 21 degrees making it perfect for walking around the beautiful spring gardens with their stunning displays.
Approximately seven million bulbs have been planted in the park laid out in displays amongst the beautiful cherry blossom trees, children’s play equipment, petting farm, windmill, maze, canals (large & small) and a serpentine lake – all landscaped which provided photogenic views.
There is plenty of seating scattered around as well plenty of cafes, restaurants, and pretty stalls where you can buy small snacks like waffles, strawberries and cream, Dutch mini pancakes, pulled pork and bacon rolls.
We were lucky with our timing as most of the flowers were in bloom. The gardens are only open for 8 weeks of the year but if you are in the area they are well worth a visit. The garden can be reached in about an hour from Amsterdam.
We arrived at about 9.30am and were able to park alongside other motorhomes not far from the entrance. The park opens at 8 am and already there were thousands of cars and coaches in the car park. I was a bit worried it would be too crowded in there but there was plenty of space to walk. We ordered our tickets online in the motorhome before we went in, while parked outside, and was glad we did to avoid the queues. We didn’t even have to get the tickets printed they just scanned the barcode on the phone as we went in.
The only negative is that the access roads are a bit of a problem and doesn’t cope well with the thousands of visitors that arrive every day by car, motorhome, bus, coach oh and thousands of bikes. It took a long time in queues of traffic to get out of the area. Even so, it was worth it as it was an amazing sight with so many colours and aromas. It is a place we will definitely go back to another year.
