My friend, Paula in Haarlem, went to Keukenhof today. Here is what she wrote me.

Gabriel and I went to the Keukenhof yesterday, by bike!!!!
It was a gorgeous day with temperatures from at least 22 ºC in the sun.
There were a lot of people already. Few tulips blooming in the garden itself, only some early ones, but a lot inside one of the pavilions. Sometimes the flowers were as big as my hand! Awesome as the kids use to say But there were enough other flowers outside to make it worthwhile. And you know what was nice too? There were a lot of people wearing the old Dutch costumes from the different villages they came from. They must get paid for that I guess because almost nobody wears costumes anymore except some elderly people from Marken. You still see them now and then in Amsterdam.
Gabriel enjoyed it a lot. When we wanted to go home we couldn't find our bikes. Well, I couldn't find the exit anyway. We walked at least 3 times the same route. There seemed to be 2 entrances/exits so we had to go all the way back to find our bikes. That's me! I always get lost.

For conversion, 22C is 72F.

I'm glad she enjoyed her trip. Some Columbian colleagues went on Thursday and enjoyed it, though they thought it would be better in a week or so. Today was also war, though not as nice as yesterday - if this keeps up the outside tulips will soon be flowering.

With regard to the costumes - in Spakenburg, Urk and Staphorst women still wear their traditional costumes daily too, though less and less it is true.
In Urk and Staphorst you will also occasionally see men in theirs.

In the town in which I live some of the ladies don the costume for high days and holidays but not on a daily basis.

hi spaarne,

thanks for posting this. when we visited a few years ago, my recollection is that it was the 2nd week in April, in a year in which the weather had been a little mixed to say the least. we were so lucky in that loads of the tulips were out in all their glory.

so to anyone who is thinking of going, if you can, I'd suggest waiting a week or so.

BTW, my tulips are coming out beautifully, despite the very cold winter that we had; but that's cornwall for you.

Hi annhig,
My tulips in Michigan came up a couple of weeks ago but they have been buried in snow twice since then. We had another dump today. I hope they survive. I bought all the bulbs in Holland. A couple of hyacinths are showing bloom. My last trip to Keukenhof was in 2008, http://tinyurl.com/y8hltjl.

hi spaaarne,

from all the posts i have read recently, you are not alone -there is still snow in NE for example.

our visit to Keuchenhof was rather longer ago - i think about 8 years ago. How time flies!