I didn’t expect to write this post tonight, but I find the need to celebrate the beautiful Tulips ’n’ Tulips I see all around! As I look back at this heat-driven (some might say cruel) summer, I was mostly enchanted by my visit to Holland, Michigan. What do you get when the descendants of Dutch immigrants use botany to keep in touch with their cultural roots? Take a look!
In my first visit to Michigan (my apologies to the lovely people of Michigan), I couldn’t believe the charm in this small city. Flowering trees, brick sidewalks, and French windows on buildings, with Tulips ‘n’ Tulips sprinkled everywhere you look. It’s like something out of my wildest dreams as a plant and flower lover. As if I snuck into a secret garden, perfect for an engagement.
Unlike the other themed town I explored back home in Illinois, the Tiny Town of Giant Things, Holland has a specific time of year that brings the masses – ready for it? Tulip Time in May brings new heights to themed towns. As a tulip festival that originally began in 1929 as the residents enjoyed their first blooms of their major crops of tulips. This was meant to further emphasize and honor the city’s Dutch heritage.
Outside the millions of Tulips ‘n’ Tulips in the city, other events like traditional Dutch dancing, street performers, a carnival, and parade with fireworks round out the gardens and museums. But the big draw is Windmill Island Gardens which feature picturesque fields of Tulips. Yes, an actually romantic place in this day and age, with couples all around. It was challenging to work around the crowds.
Judging by the long lines during my visit, this is unbelievably popular, and I was pleasantly surprised how a city this size tackled it without any bad blood. Just a few boos for the line cutters (that’s so high school) to shame them back in line, which worked about 92% of the time.
In order to enter Windmill Island Garden, you must walk one mile (or take a ride on a school bus) if you didn’t arrive early enough for 250-car parking lot on-site. Don’t blame me, I warned ya. This walk doubles as the line as you get closer but it moved quicker than I expected. But something to keep in mind.
The windmill itself is gorgeous, an authentic Dutch windmill, De Zwaan, is available to enter. Just a short climb, with quaint pit stops at each landing available for you to peruse. One landing features the charming wooden shoes at various sizes. Another landing provides insight into the making of the windmill. Another displays components of a windmill and shows how it turns grain into flour. It’s an easy climb, and when you touch down, an actual video shows the windmill in action back in the welcome center.
A Dutch street organ is also on-site and plays twice an hour.
I’ll go into further detail on my trip in an expanded post on Holland. But I’ll leave you with images of the Tulips ‘n’ Tulips everywhere in Windmill Island Garden. Various types of tulips, all absolutely stunning, perfect for any love story. Just be sure to remember an extra battery pack, which I failed to do. Why didn’t pytog bring an extra battery pack for pytog?
A perfect weekend getaway. Or even a day trip if you’re short on time like I had been. Coming from Chicago, this was a 5-hour roundtrip for me. Given the sights, not gonna lie, it was totally worth it.
