Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Holland 3: Keukenhof




Really popular tourist attractions always seem like a great idea until you remember that they're really popular tourist attractions.


In Holland, the most popular tourist attraction (outside of Amsterdam, I guess) is Keukenhof. Keukenhof, the world's largest flower garden (my sources tell me seven million flower bulbs are planted there each year) (my sources are Wikipedia), is only open for two months of the year and the best place to see famous Holland tulips. It's also home to the largest collection of foreign tourists in Holland, boasting approximately 20 loud tour buses per day. Its fanny pack exhibit rivals that of Disney World's. And the organ... the organ is in a class of its own.







When we walked in, this authentic Dutch organ was playing mood music. After a few seconds of careful listening, I turned to Y. 



"Is that..." I paused, trying to think of the name of the song. Was it something I remembered from childhood? Maybe a traditional Dutch folk song? The lyrics came to me as the organ started playing the chorus. 


"Tell me more, tell me more, did you get very far?"


Y looked at me in horror. He hates cheesy touristy things, and although I had warned him that Keukenhof might be full of tourists, he was not prepared for an organ playing a song from Grease.


Scratch that, friends. The organ was not playing a song from Grease, we soon found out. The organ was playing the entire Grease megamix. The same medley you might hear at a Bar Mitzvah party just after the chicken dance.


It was silly, and we would have rather stumbled across a field of tulips on our own than paid 20ish euro to walk around Tulip Disneyland. But we didn't let that stop us from enjoying Keukenhof, which really was beautiful. We just made sure to do the hand jive the entire time. 













Y's favorite part was talking to this Keukenhof worker about windmills. This guy was legit: not only was he wearing clogs, his mother was born in a windmill and I'm pretty sure he had a "van der" in his last name. 


 

9 comments:

  1. Another before and after shot! LOVE!

    So many beautiful flowers! Although I have to agree with Y, the Grease music would have probably killed my mood as well (even though I love the original movie).

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    1. At least I got some good video of Y doing the Greased Lightning dance out of it! :)

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    2. whaaaa? you're sharing that, right? ;)

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  2. Lol i went so many times in holland and i`ve never visited that place >.<

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    1. It looks like you made up for it by shopping!! I kind of wish we would have gotten to shop more. I was good, though.

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  3. Those colors are just Beautiful! I've been loving your posts about Holland. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thanks! I love posting about traveling... I just wish I could do it more often!

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  4. Great photos!! It's soo beautiful there!

    xx
    Giovanna
    www.oliveandanarrow.com

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  5. seeing the tulips in Holland (or, the Netherlands as I guess they're called now) is definitely on my bucket list. Looks like a great trip, DJ!

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