Picnic by the Tulips

After going to the main square in Haarlem to see the floats from the Flower Parade, Diana, Caroline, and I set out on a bike ride through the bulb fields.  We had packed a picnic of Dutch raisin bread with marzipan in the middle, grapes, cherry tomatoes, "farmers' cheese," pear and peach Dutch yogurt, canned herring in tomato sauce (cooked herring this time), and "fillet Am éricain" (more about that later ...).

It took a good twenty minutes of riding our upright bikes through the streets of a little Dutch village before we got to the first fields.  We could smell thousands of hyacinths from behind a wall, but no tulips yet.  We went under a bridge for the train, and then suddenly there was a vast field of red, white, and orange and yellow tulips.

The last time I had ridden down this road the tulips were still mostly buds, so the view was a surprise for me, but it was an absolute shock for Diana and Caroline.  I got to watch as first my sister and then her friend rode out from the shadows under the bridge and gasped at the sudden color.  These photographs are nice, but they can't reproduce the panoramic view of numberless tulips stretching across acres and acres of land.  It is overwhelming. 

The farmers don't like people walking in between the rows of tulips, but some fields--including this one--are not fenced off, allowing you to walk along the edges.

Diana said that being surrounded by so many tulips was like "walking into a calendar!"  That is exactly what it feels like--as if you have stepped into the stunning photograph for the April page and are amazed to find that the intense orange of the flowers isn't just a Photoshop trick after all!

We continued bike riding past fields of tulips for over five hours.  The red tulips were especially bright in the sunlight--so bright that they almost hurt your eyes.

These tulips aren't packed together so closely.

There were still some rows of hyacinths blooming.

This is the Leidsevaart canal, leading all the way to Leiden.  We ate our picnic on a little dock with the sun shining on the water and fields of tulips across from us.  It was a delicious Dutch dinner, especially the raisin bread with marzipan in the middle.  The "fillet Américain" was also a big hit.  Caroline had bought it at the store the day before.  It was an interesting, pink-colored spread, and even though none of us knew what it was, we thought it would be good.  "Maybe it's made from roasted red peppers," said Caroline, dipping a tomato in it.  "I can't tell what's in it," Diana added, "but it tastes good."  For some reason "fillet Américain" rang a bell in my mind, but I couldn't remember where I'd seen it before.  Caroline ate a particularly large amount of the dip.  We sat there looking at the tulips and the water and eating wonderful Dutch yogurt (better than any yogurt I've had before).  Diana was staring at the Dutch list of ingredients on the "fillet Américain."  "Uh oh," she suddenly said.  "I'm positive that this word means beef."  Both Diana and Caroline speak German, which is very helpful in deciphering written Dutch.  "There's raw beef in this!"  It was a sickening moment for all of us--especially Caroline, who had consumed by far the most of the stuff.  To make matters worse, I decided that I better confess that I had forgotten to put the groceries in the refrigerator until quite late the night before.  Caroline started having visions of throwing up all night with severe salmonella in the hostel bathroom.  Diana thoughtfully reminded her that she would need to remember to take her key to the room each time she left to throw up so she wouldn't be locked out!  And I remembered now where I had seen "fillet Américain."  It was at the butcher shop in Leiden!

Even in the photograph the pink almost hurts your eyes.  We kept riding on and on and continuing to be amazed by the beauty.  It felt so appropriate, with Easter just around the corner.  Can you believe that someone lives in this house and sees this view from their kitchen window?

Purple and white hyacinths.

It is always a surprise how the farmers will arrange the combinations of colors each year.  Caroline wondered if there was tulip design specialist who supervised this job!

When the Flower Parade came through this area the day before, the residents participated in competitions with flower mosaics and sculptures in their front yards.  This small work of art is made from hyacinth blossoms.

And this sculpture won first prize.  It is also made from hyacinth blossoms, painstakingly pinned one by one to these statues.