The Netherlands
While The Netherlands are certainly great to visit anytime of year, no doubt April’s tulips are the best time to see the country’s scenery. Tulip season is one of the most highly sought after European vacations for any avid nature goer. With only 3.5 days to spend in the country, I wanted to make the most out of our trip and get to watch this awesome event!
Day 1
My trip began with a big loop around the north of the country in search of blossomed tulip fields. I first headed north out of Amsterdam and towards Flevoland, an island nearly entirely reclaimed from the sea during the 1950s and 1960s now home to almost a half million people. Once on Flevoland I was able to drive along the pre-established ‘tulpenroute’, a car path which navigates through some of the island's best tulip fields. Finding fields of tulips was not difficult; finding an interesting background was. With hundreds of different tulip fields around, how could I decide which ones were best for photos? My first photogenic field was in central Flevoland with yellow tulips and clusters of wind turbines in the background. By photographing the tulip field perpendicular to the natural growing lines, I could blend the rows of tulips into one seamless field.
I continued on the tulpenroute through Flevoland and into the northern province of Friesland. With not too many tulips to see in Friesland, I crossed the IJsselmeer (Lake IJssel) via the Afsluitdijk Causeway. This 30 mile crossing brought me into North Holland. While slowly making my way through North Holland towards Amsterdam, I found small backroads with well framed tulip fields. My favorite of them was in front of an old brick church, where the tulip rows aligned perfectly for a picture. After a few hours in North Holland, I settled in for the night just past Amsterdam.
Day 2
This day was to be spent in the heart of Dutch tulip country, around the town of Leiden, South Holland. With an early morning wake up, I began driving in the small town of Lisse for some drone photography. All of this was to kill time waiting for the world famous Keukenhof to open its doors. During the tulip season, the Keukenhof gardens put on an amazing botanical display with almost 7 million tulips. The gardens are also among the largest in the world! While I am not typically a fan of photographing ‘manicured’ nature, Keukenhof was an exception. The well maintained dutch windmill in the gardens was a great subject for some photos– despite the crowds. Following a half day at Keukenhof, I proceeded towards the UNESCO preserved windmills at Kinderdijk for a gorgeous dutch sunset. I then made the short drive into The Hague for the night.
Day 3
Day 3 in the Netherlands was really day 4-5 ish on the trip as I headed to Belgium in between (read about it in the Belgium article)! Upon reentering the Netherlands from the south, I went to Delft (where famous Delft pottery is from) Utrecht and Castle De Haar (the largest castle in the country). With the day consumed by tourist attractions, I then went back to the Leiden area for another crack at sunset photography. After finding a field that was well kept and in a good direction for sunset, I took out both my handheld and drone cameras. I spent the sunset switching off between ground and aerial photos, giving me a wide variety of vantage points. The tulip fields and dutch canals proved to be great leading lines into the sunset! With a good variety of photos, I settled into a hotel near the Amsterdam airport for my midday flight back over the Atlantic.
My trip to The Netherlands was easily the most action packed trip I have ever embarked on. In 5 days, I covered The Netherlands and Belgium from top to bottom (geographically) and even got a hint of Luxembourg. The rental car easily picked up 1000 miles! Even though Belgium and The Netherlands combined are roughly the size of South Carolina, the countries punch well above their size in terms of attractions. In 5 days I only scratched the surface of things to do. Despite this, tulip season was easily one of my top nature trips. An endless view of perfectly kept tulip fields with an orange sunset haze is a sight I will never forget.
