FULL BLOOM AHEAD!
Robin Esser sets sail for Holland’s truly glorious tulips
SOME people dream of reaching base camp on Mount Everest. Me? i’ve always longed to see the tantalising tulips of Amsterdam — and when you combine that with a luxurious river cruise, then the end result is unadulterated joy. The glorious multi-coloured carpet of tulips does not exist anywhere except at the worldfamous Keukenhof Gardens. And it’s utterly captivating. For those wishing to see it next spring, now is the time to book.
The Dutch have spent 400 years cultivating the tulip, which they export around the world, and the 80 acres of beautifully maintained parkland that is Keukenhof show themhem off in spectacular fashion.
There are also masses of daffodils, swathes of muscari, huge shallow tubs of hyacinths, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Specialist tulip breeders showcase their best and newest varieties in designated areas, so you can contact the growers direct. Within the grounds there are also five themed indoor pavilions, where you’ll find yet more species of tulip, lilies and amaryllis and one pavilion devoted to orchids.
This is where keen gardeners can select from more than 3,000 tulip varieties to buy for planting in autumn. Our favourite was the Cambridge, a pure white tall-stemmed beauty with green-fringed petals.
TulipS were originally imported from the chilly mountainous interior of Turkey and Afghanistan, and it is said the bulbs are named after the Turkish word for turban ( tulbent). At the peak of the frenzy for tulips (known as Dutch Tulipmania) in 1637, some single bulbs sold for more than ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman.
Then, as with commodity bubbles down the ages, this one burst. The price came crashing down and fortunes were lost.
We had chosen to see this vivid floral display as a highlight of the maiden voyage of the river cruiser SS Maria Theresa, sailing from Amsterdam to Antwerp.
The ship, with its gilt mirrors and extravagant swags and chandeliers, plus huge urns of long-stemmed tulips, is unashamedly opulent. But you will still feel at home, even with silk damask on the walls, a marble en-suite bathroom with underfloor heating and three widescreen TVs.
There’s a cinema and swimming pool on board, plus an elegant dining room and stylish leopard lounge for light lunches or late Lush: Tulips in the Keukenhof Gardens. Inset: The opulent lobby aboard the SS Maria Theresa cocktails. Most of our 130 fellow passengers were Americans and we became friendly with some of them, including a former university lecturer who’d taught at Manchester and a fascinating retired forensic psychotherapist.
Each night the sommelier chose two of his best wines to accompany our dinner and described the origins and tastes we were about to enjoy. Over predinner drinks our cruise director outlined his plans for the next day’s excursions — one of which included seeing Holland’s only mountain, a modest nine metres high. Sailing calmly along the rivers and canals of the Netherlands, we discovered the medieval village of Hoorn, visited the ‘Bridge Too Far’ at Nijmegen and the wonderful art of the Kroller-Muller Museum.
Helene Kroller-Muller spent her rich husband’s money buying more than 10,000 works of art, illustrating the change in the style of artists from the classical to the impressionist. Van Gogh is hugely represented in this second largest collection of his works, but there are also paintings by picasso, Mondrian, Giacometti, Monet and Fantin-latour.
The next day we saw Rotterdam and Kinderdijk, where we found 19 windmills dating back to 1500 and which are now listed as unesco world heritage sites.
Without windmills, Holland would hardly exist. The majority of land is well below sea-level and it was the windmills that enabled the Dutch to pump water into the dykes and back into the sea, creating a viable farming community. Today, that work is done by steam and electrical pumping stations. But how much more attractive the windmills were than those modern wind farms we see today.
Then it was on to Belgium and a visit to Bruges, with its chocolate shops, canals and pretty buildings, and finally on to Antwerp — the diamond capital of the world.
Ten days of marvellous sights and scenes visited in gilded surroundings — and those tulips that my wife and i will never forget.