Walking New Zealand

Trip through the tulips

- By Jill Grant

Cycling Europe’s Bike, Boat & Barge season starts every year with the Springflow­ers Bike and Barge tours in Holland. Bikers get to visit the world’s largest flower auctions at Aalsmeer where early each morning, millions of flowers are auctioned off here and instantly sent out to all corners of the world.

Another treat in store is the famous Keukenhof, known as “the most beautiful Spring garden in the world”. It’s a riot of brilliant colours and a garden lover’s mecca where you can admire hundreds of thousands of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and

many other flowers in full bloom.

The tulips and bulbs will still be there this year but the visitors won’t. Keukenhof cannot open at all this year due to Covid-19 but they will be publishing videos on their website www.keukenhof.nl when all the bulbs are blooming.

The park is usually open 21 March to 10 May so take a virtual trip through the tulips.

Not only are the bulbs a glorious sight to see, bikers also visit charming historic towns such as Haarlem and Ghent, plus typical Dutch villages where you can sample locally made cheeses.

In the evening they rejoin the barge in its new location for a three course dinner with fellow travellers from multi-national background­s.

Barges are very comfortabl­e and take on average between 30 to 40 passengers. They are specifical­ly designed to navigate the canals and waterways of the Benelux countries.

These Bike and Barge tours are graded easy as most of Holland is flat, therefore anyone who has a reasonable level of fitness can do these tours. There are five day tours Amsterdam back to Amsterdam that showcase the springflow­ers, and longer eight day tours which go between Amsterdam and Bruges in Belgium, plus vice versa.

Dates for Springflow­ers Bike Boat and Barge tours in 2021 have been released.

Contact info@walkworld.co.nz www.cycling-europe.com

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 ??  ?? Opposite page above: The Keukenhof Gardens is a brilliant show of spring bulbs and a highlight on a Springflow­ers Bike & Barge tour.
Opposite page below and above: Historic towns like Haarlem are visited on the Springflow­ers Bike & Barge tour.
Opposite page above: The Keukenhof Gardens is a brilliant show of spring bulbs and a highlight on a Springflow­ers Bike & Barge tour. Opposite page below and above: Historic towns like Haarlem are visited on the Springflow­ers Bike & Barge tour.

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