TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

Trivia: Did you know that tulips originally come from Turkey? If you visit Turkey in spring, you will find the beautiful gardens of Istanbul in a colourful carpet of tulip flowers. I was able to witness this 2 years ago. Check it out here: Sultanahmet Park in Istanbul, Turkey Tulips these days, as synonymous to Holland aka Netherlands, were made popular around the world by the Dutch, after a professor brought the tulip bulbs to the Netherlands for further experimentation and cultivation. Who would have thought a flower can cause an economic crisis? But that's another story to tell. The Netherlands tourism website even uses the orange tulip as one of its many quintessential logos. Tulips to me though are nothing new. My first job in the Netherlands was situated in Hillegom, in the midst of the flower bulb region of the country. I can literally see the plethora of tulip fields from my work desk. Whenever I go to the terrace upstairs which is through the in-house Irish ...

Alright, for the last leg of the Keukenhof series, here are familiar typically Dutch stuff I found in the garden park. A windmill, one of the few that survived in the region; different styles of wooden shoes: boots, skates, pumps and Sunday shoes =); and the ubiquitous wooden draw bridge that beautifies many Dutch villages. Flower fields at the back of Keukenhof as well as canals and of course it is not complete without a boat! Notice how neatly and orderly the flower fields are? It’s one of the amazing things that you will notice if you come to the Netherlands and explore the countryside—everything is symmetrical, aligned and orderly, even the trees, all is uniformed in this country. Nothing typically Dutch here except the directional signs in Keukenhof. Moi with beautiful bright flowers behind me. Poffertjes (mini pancakes smeared with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar) are yummy! This is a local favorite not only for the kids but with the adults as well. Haring, the Dutch ver...

Being an art enthusiast I right away noticed the random work of arts scattered in the garden park. Wow, what a beautiful surprise! And what a great way to showcase up and coming artists—for the whole world to see as Keukenhof is of course world famous. I’ve done a little bit of reading and it appears that every year there are different sets of artists and sculptures put on display. I’m curious to know if there is a yearly audition or if they only exclusively invite selected artists to join in the garden exhibition. Anyway, this of course has to be commercial because a number of the sculptures have price tags on them, going at varying rates between €2,000 and €6,000 for the smaller ones. I hope some of the artists managed to snag a deal! Here are a few of my favorites: Keukenhof artworks: The lady with the birds, a great sculpture for this part of the park because there were many birds tweeting nearby. Keukenhof theme for 2010 is 'From Russia with Love' and here you can see ...