Posts Tagged flowers

Amsterdam Art and Culture

The city of Amsterdam is an old city that has embraced the new cosmopolitan flair of Europe. The seat of government is in The Hague, but Amsterdam is also thought of as the capital and it is the home of The Netherlands’ royal family. The Dutch are also a cultured people who enjoy the finer things in life when it comes to the arts.

Amsterdam is a city of less than one million residents but has over 50 theatres and movie houses, two ballet troupes, a symphony orchestra, and numerous museums.

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Holland Tulips

holland-tulipsThe tulip flower, the symbol of Holland, has its roots in Asia and the Mediterranean. Holland is the tulip capital of the world, although it is not a native Dutch flower. There is not a single species of tulip indigenous to Holland. Tulips grow so well in Holland due to the pleasant climate. Tulips were introduced in the Netherlands during the 17th century by Carolus Clusius, a famous biologist. He achieved immense recognition for his works with medicinal herbs in Prague and Vienna. In 1593, he accepted a position as the head botanist of the Dutch University in Leiden.

At Leiden, Clusius founded the first botanic garden focusing on ornamental plants rather than medicinal ones. In this garden, he developed a private tulip collection with the tulip bulbs and seeds brought from Constantinople (presently Istanbul) and thus introduced the flower to Holland for the first time. Some local gardeners broke into his garden and stole many of the specimen tulips. It is from these that the now famous Dutch bulb industry began. Tulips rapidly gained popularity as a trading produce, especially in Holland. The interest in these flowers was enormous and bulbs were sold for incredibly high prices.

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Keukenhof – The Garden of Holland

No visit to the Netherlands can be complete without visiting the magnificent gardens at Keukenhof Lisse. Me and My wife always visit the park once a year and I never enjoy a better day each year as there are so many things to see and experience.

This year is the 58th time the parks are open to the public and they are spectacular. The Dutch people really excel in art of producing the worlds most beautiful flowers. The other draw is the fact that the smell of the flowers is astonishing.

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