Rich Pomerantz Photography
Amsterdam
I had the great good fortune to visit Amsterdam at the beginning of May. We were lucky because (unlike here at home) they had a late spring this year, and the tulips were all at peak show when we were there. Here are a few juicy tulip shots from Keukenhof Gardens, the largest tulip display in the world. It is only open in the spring for a few months, and well worth the 90 minutes travel time from the city of Amsterdam. It’s a bit touristy, but you can look past all that & see some amazing plantings and some clever little gardens designed by guest curators and artists.
Double red tulips
multicolor tulip display
Keukenhof
Another highlight was visiting the Aalsmeer flower auction. Housed in the largest one story building in the world (imagine hundreds – yes hundreds, of football fields under one roof) one-third of the world’s flowers pass through here every single day to be sold before being whisked off to all points of the globe.
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If you’ve seen the brilliant film version of Michael Pollan’s “Botany of Desire” you may recognize this place. The flowers are carted into a room where the buyers all sit wearing headsets where they converse with their customers and the auctioneer, hands poised over buttons to seal their bids as the prices for each cart of flowers drops second by second. Bidding is lightning fast. It’s definitely a ‘blink-and-you-might-miss-it’ situation, and it’s fascinating to watch.
one of several bidding rooms
I’ll leave you with an image of the gorgeous canals of Amsterdam. It’s a city of small micro-gardens, lots of wysteria draped on the charming antique row houses that fill the city. We can’t wait to go back.
It's easy to see the light of the Vermeer paintings walking through Amsterdam in spring.