The Bollenstreek is a 13 km stretch of land that lies between Haarlem and Sassenheim. The area is famous for its flower fields that bloom in early March. A truly breathtaking sight. Imagine field after field of crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips, rolling across the countryside, creating a patchwork of intense colour that extends for miles. The Bollenstreek or bulb area is sometimes called ‘the world’s biggest flower garden’ with its highlight the ‘Keukenhof Netherlands’, the world famous Dutch flower exhibition park.
When the bulb fields are in full bloom the Bollenstreek is one of the most colourful, visited, and photographed regions in the world. But take a look while you can, because by the end of May all the flowers have disappeared, with the majority of the crop cultivated for export.
If you fancy exploring the Bollenstreek then the Flying Pig Beach hostel is the perfect place to base yourself. Noordwijk is right on the tip of the Bollenstreek, and at the end of April the annual flower parade begins here. The flower parade is a vivid procession of floats and passenger vehicles decorated with local flowers. The procession passes through the entire Bulb region on route from Noordwijk to Harlem.
The best way to explore the Bollenstreek is to rent a bike, pack some food and cycle off into the countryside, armed to the teeth with a map and a camera. Before long you will be surrounded by rainbow coloured flower fields, historical windmills, and Dutch farmers wearing wooden clogs.
One of the first villages that you will come across is a little place called Voorhout, where a Dutch painter is busy painting his masterpiece, Panorama Tulip Land. The painting is a 64-meter long, 4-meter high representation of the Bollenstreek. Millions of flowers have already been painted in the utmost detail and the sheer scale of the project is quite mesmerizing. The artist has offered no indication of a completion date, and for this reason I offered to assist him with his painting - to help speed up the work. But he didn’t take kindly to my offer, indeed, he barked at me like a wild dog and I ran off like a scared cat, and hid in the nearest crocus field. I watched on in shock as the painter prowled around my cycle for a moment, and then vanished into a mound of tulips. I understood that the artist was only defending his territory; he probably knew that I was a writer, just another creative type like himself, and only meant to warn me that this was his project, and not mine. When I finally emerged from the crocus field I realized that the painter had gone easy on me. He could have stomped my cycle into tiny pieces, an act that would have rendered me helpless in the middle of the Bollenstreek - but he didn’t. Why? I cannot be entirely sure of his motivations, but perhaps painters who like to bark like wild dogs and pay no attention to deadlines can’t fail to have decent hearts, especially when they are surrounded by the intense colour and beauty of the Bollenstreek.