Day 7 Amsterdam

Today we did a tour of Keukenhof Gardens outside the city of Amsterdam.  The first tulips are alleged to have come from the mountains of Turkey.  In 1593, the head of the Botanical Gardens in Leiden, Carolus Clusius, planted the first bulbs in Dutch soil.  Amazed when he first laid eyes on the flower, the botanist tasked himself with learning how to propagate and cultivate the flower and eventually wrote a book on the subject.  Today, the Dutch control 77% of flower bulbs, mostly tulips, traded globally.  The dams, canals and windmills create a land where beauty blooms to the tune of 4.6 billion euros annually.  The photos below are from our trip to Keukenhof Gardens.  We think the flowers below tell the story better than we can....