Netherlands: Noordoostpolder Tulip Fields
While hordes of tourists go to the Keukenhof Gardens and the surrounding Bloemen Route – to truly experience the spectacular tulip fields one needs to go north of Amsterdam to the Noordoostpolder in the Flevoland province. Noordoostpolder was submerged under the sea and only reclaimed from the Zuiderzee Bay in the 1940s. The entire area is flat as far as the eye can see with lonely wind turbines at the horizon. And it is the prime tulip growing region in the country with large fields bursting with color all around. Just roaming on small one-way roads in the countryside takes you to absolutely spectacular fields – blood red, orange, white yellow, pink, and everything in between, many running nearly to horizon. Most of these are grown for bulbs and not for flowers, as the latter are being simply chopped off at the height of the bloom with tractor blades.
