Holland's Dutch Treat Is Its Flower Power

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday February 2, 1995

NORMAN NORTH

HOLLAND - a land of windmills, wooden clogs, round cheeses in red skins and tulips. And the best time to see them all is "tulip time" in the northern spring, when these graceful blooms, along with daffodils, hyacinths and other flowers, will flood the bulb fields with a riot of colour.

To be precise, most of those tall buildings with criss-cross sails were not mills but pumps which, allied with the dykes, kept huge tracts of land below sea-level from flooding.

Also in the interest of accuracy, Holland comprises only two regions of The Netherlands (the Lowlands); but they are the regions where the bulbs flourish and much of that gorgeous cheese is found.

True, too, the tulip is not a native of Holland: it was adopted about 400 years ago when a Dutch envoy at the court of the Sultan in Istanbul sent some bulbs to the botanical gardens at Leiden. In the 17th century they became the subject of unbridled financial speculation. At one time the bulb of a rare tulip could fetch as much as a canal house in Amsterdam.

Financial sanity prevailed, but the bulb flowers are a big earner, both in sales and as an attraction to tourists, the former selling by the million throughout Europe and the latter flocking in the hundreds of thousands.

The fields are a blend of sand and clay running from just south of Amsterdam and Haarlem to north of The Hague. For the tourist, the biggest draw is the 28-hectare Keukenhof Park, at Lisse, where sixmillion bulb flowers bloom every year in plots that display a bewildering range of types and hues.

The park is open from late March to the end of May each year and attracts about 800,000 visitors. From March 23 to May 25 this year a series of flower shows will be mounted in the park's pavilions, including displays of freesias, hyacinths, orchids, forsythia, prunus, tulips, irises, chrysanthemums, roses and lilies. The displays are open from 8 am to 7.30 pm each day. The best time to see the flowers is early in the day.

Everywhere you travel in these western regions, by rail, car, coach or bicycle - the last being the way to go on the flat, flat Dutch roads - you will be overwhelmed by the colour and beauty of spreading fields of flowers and a mass of fruit-tree blossom. It is unlikely you will find a market that does not sell flowers and plants; some sell nothing but.

Even so, nature's delights do not exhaust the beauty of The Netherlands. Its cities and towns boast some of the finest treasures of architecture and many art collections of world renown. Its well-preserved villages of brightly painted timber buildings, clustered alongside a canal spanned by a wooden lifting bridge, bespeak a friendly restfulness. Probably Sydney's most active agency for visits to the bulb fields is the Tip Top Travel Service, 1st floor, 82 Alexander Street, Crows Nest, 2065; tel (02) 438 2711 - undoubtedly because it is run by people of Dutch extraction.

It is offering fly-drive holidays including 14 days free hire of a small car for $2,399 per person, with two sharing, in March or $2,599 in April and May, in conjunction with KLM and Singapore Airlines.

Swan Hellenic is offering five- and seven-day river cruises through The Netherlands, with sightseeing in the bulb fields, flying from London on April 23 and 29. Swan Hellenic's selling agent in Australia is P&O Holidays, on 13 2469. Travel agents can advise on accommodation and coach tours.