29 April – 4 May – Rotterdam – 5 nights

Train: Bayeux – Rotterdam – (6:22) Change in Paris – St Lazare to Paris Nord (50 mins)

Hotel: Hotel van Walsum **CHANGE RESERVATIONS!***0:18)

Mathenesserlaan 199, 3014 HC Rotterdam, Netherlands

Day trips:

• Amsterdam - 2 days (0:41)

• Haarlem (0:57)

• Delft (0:12)

• The Hague (0:18)

Tulip Fever

We had planned the entire first half of the trip around these bloomin' tulips. Getting to Amsterdam and its nearby flowering fields by May 1, according to all experts, would guarantee 1) tulip-filled gardens large (Kukenhof) and small (yards, parks) and 2) gloriously colored fields where Jan could launch his drone. We got there May 2, breathless with anticipation.

Yes there WERE definitely tulips in Kukenhof because it's a tulip mecca and folks come from everywhere expecting elaborate tulip beds and myriad varieties, plus heather, roses, daffodils and more. BUT, the tulip season in the vast fields that produce the flowers sent worldwide in the spring--THAT season peaked a week or more before.

However, that did not stop Jan. He found fields that supply Kukenhof near the garden's vast parking lot and got some great footage! I took stills of the varioius plots, arbors, arranged gardens, etc. in Kukenhof and even found a little spot--in front of several benched older visitors who had no clue what was in front of them--where a guide had told me descendants of tulips from the 1600s were waving their little heads.

Yes!

Also, the informative visitors center does a nice job summarizing the great Tulip Mania of the 1630s--flower futures skyrocketing, basically the dot.com bubble of Holland's Golden Age.