Purple and Yellow Fields of Flowers

The bulb fields between Leiden and Haarlem are at their peak right now, and the stripes of red, orange, pink, yellow, and purple tulips are stunning.  These pictures are from a few weeks ago, when only the very earliest tulips were blooming.  I went for a bike ride to see the daffodils and hyacinths, and I was completely unprepared for how spectacular the expanse of yellow, white, and various shades of purple would be.

The pictures don't begin to do these flower fields justice.  The camera can't reproduce the panoramic vista of brilliant color.

And the camera can't reproduce the smell of thousands of fragrant white narcissus in the wind.

Northern Holland is predominantly Protestant, but the flower-growing country is mostly Catholic.  Sometimes you can see a church in the distance, perched picturesquely above a sea of daffodils.  This is the Church of the Sacred Heart in De Zilk.

 Here are some early tulips.

One of the most fragrant spring flowers is the hyacinth, and as I rode my bike, the air was perfumed with these bulbs.

I turned down a street cutting across one of the bulb fields, and suddenly I found this huge sea of hyacinths in different tints of purple.  I could walk up close to them, and I was speechless.  I had never seen anything like it before.  We have hyacinths in my garden at home, but probably only a dozen or so.  We always wait expectantly for them to blossom in the spring.  I had never seen hundreds of thousands of them before at one time.  It was unbelievable.  In the spring, Holland must be the most beautiful country in the world!
 

We have hyacinths in my garden at home, but probably only a dozen or so.  We always wait expectantly for them to blossom in the spring.  I had never seen hundreds of thousands of them before at one time.  It was unbelievable.  In the spring, Holland must be the most beautiful country in the world! 

 More daffodils with hyacinths in the distance.

White daffodils.

Pure yellow ones.