With the flowering season coming to an end, I finally got down to visiting Keukenhof near Leiden.


Top Lips, Muscari Armeniacum (rear)

There was this box in a pavilion where you could press a button and it'd blow the scent of the flower inside to you.


Shirley (purple), Gipsy Queen (amputated), Up star (pink)


Freeman

Because I came late in the season, a few flowers had been amputated already, and some were drooping but there were still many others - enough for softcore people lke me. Also, flowers flower at different times, so you probably can't see all of them flowering at once.


Princess Irene (orange), Big Smile (yellow), Dreaming Maid (purple)


Hans dietrich genscher (yellow), Kingsblood (red)


Mona Lisa


Pink Diamond


Too many!

There was a music wagon in Keukenhof, which I've seen in a few Dutch cities. They're basically huge music boxes made from organ pipes on wheels. At one point it was playing a piece from the Backstreet Boys - Which Backstreet Boy is Gay I Want It That Way. Gah.


Purk Tulp


Rembrandt


Green Wave


Lightning Sun


Rosalie


Lac van Rijn


Columbine


Path


Muriel


Royal Virgin (Ah! Proof that flower growers treat women as sex objects!!!)

Most of the flowers did not smell as good as one might suspect. Even those with scents could only be smelled when one was in front of them, so the air smelled normal most of the time.


Flower arrangement


Too many!

I was surprised to find a petting zoo in Keukenhof. I was even more surprised to see:


Pigs


Video of pigs


Too many!


Dutch girls dancing humiliating themselves to get the equivalent of ECA points. Notice how they don't look very happy.


Redux.

I saw a woman with so much makeup around her eyes (including lines trailing to her temples) that she looked like she'd just walked off the stage of Cats.


Lined lake


Assorted flowers


Drooping flowers in indoor exhibit in pavilion


Assorted flowers

I had a €2,50 waffle which was great - flakier than the one I had in Brussels, and dusted with icing sugar (better than chocolate).


Pink tree whose name I couldn't find


Queen of Night


Shirley


Fringed solstice


As I walked across these, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was on Takeshi's Castle, and the next step I took would plunge me into the water.

I had to pay €0,30 for a toilet in Keukenhof, on top of the €12,50 entry fee. Gah.


Apricot perfection


King's Orange (Guess what colour it is), Dreamland (Pink)