City of Flowery Love

Looking for a fresh way to see Europe? Nothing beats Amsterdam in the springtime. by Jelena Petrovic

I saw her one Saturday morning during my regular trek to the fruit and vegetable market in my neighborhood. As I wrestled with just two bags full of sustenance, the young mother whizzed by me on her rickety bike, carrying not just groceries, but a toddler in a child seat in front, a small dog in a wicker basket in the back, and a gigantic bundle of fresh sunflowers. “Hmm,” I thought. “Some of us call that a delicate balance.” Deep down, however, I felt dull and inefficient.

Tulipomania

Amsterdammers, you will find soon upon arriving, are obsessed with two things: bikes and flowers. There are about two bikes to every human in this city of almost 750,000, and they charge about, sometimes at breakneck speed, in special pink lanes. The flowers are even more ubiquitous, particularly in spring, when all of Holland seems to be abloom. In fact, the Dutch take their floriculture so seriously that they have built a temple to it.

I am referring of course to the majestic Keukenhof, the largest flower garden this side of heaven. Situated about twelve miles south of Amsterdam, between the towns of Hillegom and Lisse, Keukenhof comes alive for just eight weeks each spring, when more that six million tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, narcissi, and other stunning bloomers carpet the grounds of the gardens in rich swatches of red, yellow, pink, white, purple, and blue. Some of the varieties are exhibited in perfect geometrical patterns along the park’s ponds, while others grow in fifty-four-thousand square feet of scattered pavilions and hothouses.

There are many “theme” gardens, like the Historical Garden, where staff dressed in mock outfits from the middle ages tend to kitchen herbs and flowers typical for that era. The combination of nature’s perfection and human engineering is mesmerizing, especially if you consider the fact that the nimble hands of only thirty gardeners are responsible for planting all those millions of bulbs the previous fall.

This spring, Keukenhof will be open from March 22 to May 24, and it is typically loveliest around the end of April, when all the varieties of flowers are blooming at once. The only deterrent to a blissful aesthetic experience is the crowds. Keukenhof attracts some eight-hundred thousand visitors during that narrow window of opportunity, so it can get a touch claustrophobic. Luckily, the gardens are vast, and if you come right at opening time (eight o’clock in the morning), you might get a divine patch of color and fragrance all to yourself.

Exploring Amsterdam

Spring is also the best time to visit Amsterdam itself. The combination of long northern days and relatively mild temperatures highlights the city’s outdoor beauty. The best way to experience this is to simply hide your map in the deepest pocket of your rain jacket (for it will rain) and head for the canals with every intention of getting lost. The oldest and most architecturally charming sections of the city are built around these horseshoe-shaped waterways, and they conceal many lovely cafés, art galleries, churches, neighborhood shops, and obscure museums. The Nieuwe Spiegelstraat is dotted with cozy antique shops and boasts a spectacular view of the vast Rijksmuseum across the water.

From there, it’s a skip and a hop to the Bloemenmarkt, the floating flower market on the Singel canal. The market is open six days a week, and its friendly and knowledgeable merchants will patiently answer questions and explain how and when you can plant your beloved tulip bulbs.

One of my favorite streets for wandering in Amsterdam is the Prinsengracht, the outermost ring of canals horse-shoeing the old city. Prinsengracht flaunts the perfect balance of the bohemian and the dignified, which is what Amsterdam’s charm is all about. As you stroll down the street’s cobblestoned pavement, take a few blind turns into Prinsengracht’s tributary streets. You’ll bump into odd curio shops, like Bert’s Bierhuis (2e Hugo de Grootstraat 3), which offers more than eight hundred different varieties of beer, or De Verleiding, (1e Boomdwarsstraat 10) which specializes in essential oils from around the world.

Don’t miss Prinsengracht’s grand architectural landmarks: On the eastern side of the water, directly west of downtown is the imposing seventeenth-century Westerkerk, which at 350 feet is the tallest church in the city. And just a few hundred steps north is the famous Anne Frank Museum, the canal-side house in which the Frank family hid from the Nazis during World War II. Finally, on the western side of the canal is the picturesque Noordemarkt, a market square since the seventeenth century. Arrive on a Saturday around midday and allow the scents of fresh Gouda cheese, spring herbs, and organic fruit to lead you toward the stalls. And if you happen to be on a bike, pile it high with goodies and wander off down the bumpy side streets with an enormous bouquet of bloemen right on top of your handlebars. You’ll then feel like a true Amsterdammer.

Visiting the Van Gogh Museum

By the time he committed suicide at the tender age of thirty seven, Vincent Willem van Gogh had sold only one painting. Nowadays, posters of his sunflowers, night skies, and various self-portraits adorn college dorm rooms worldwide, while originals regularly sell for millions of dollars. Well, Holland has a museum honoring this complicated artist, and it’s the best place to go if you’re looking for visual surprises, or even a refuge from a spring downpour.

Located on the Museumplein, a vast square holding two other national museums (the Rijksmuseum and the Stedelijk), the Van Gogh was recently renovated and expanded. Start on the first floor, where a rotating exhibition by various Van Gogh contemporaries (Gauguin, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec) provides background on the painter’s life and work. Van Gogh’s work is displayed on the second floor, but the collection is so wide that it too rotates.

The almost blinding radiance of the artist’s Provence period, when he painted more than two hundred pieces in the last two years of his life, is the gem of the collection. Look for the iridescent The Yellow House in Arles (1888) and the gloomy Wheatfield with Crows (1890), painted the year Van Gogh died.

The Van Gogh Museum is open daily from ten o’clock in the morning to six o’clock in the evening. Admission is about six dollars for adults and about two dollars for children. —J. P.