TULIP TIME a symphony in color Few natural spectacles are as riotously colorful as the scene that blankets The Netherlands and Belgium when the tulips — millions and millions of them — announce the coming of spring. Join us for a memorable voyage into a land that has one wooden shoe firmly in the medieval past and the other dancing on the leading edge of contemporary culture.
ABLOOM WITH HISTORY Holland’s love affair with tulips harks back to the 1500s, when these handsomely symmetrical Himalayan flowers were first imported. The Dutch soon grew so obsessed with cultivating new varieties that the famous “Tulip Mania” of the 17th century followed, when the rarest bulbs traded hands for more guilders than a mansion — until the market crashed. Widely regarded as the world’s first free-market bubble, this apocalyptic tale has been somewhat debunked by recent research. But don’t tell the destination guides that.
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C A L L C R Y S T A L A T 1 . 8 4 4 . C R Y S TA L O R C O N T A C T Y O U R P R E F E R R E D T R A V E L A D V I S O R
