Our last full day, and it’s a busy one! Up early in the morning to travel to Aalsmeer, where the world’s biggest flower auction takes place every day. An overhead grid of platforms allows you walk around and see down onto the huge floors filled with cart after cart of any kind of flower or plant you can imagine. It’s a very colorful sight! You can even peek in one of the many auction rooms to watch the proceedings while the carts are being bid on. Its hard to imagine that the flowers we were seeing on the auction floor could be in a vase on our kitchen table by the time we arrived home tomorrow afternoon. But that’s how quickly the flowers are moved through the process. Fascinating!
And now for one of the greatest “shows” put on by Mother Nature, with a great deal of help from many, many willing hands. We are here at the Keukenhof National Flower Exhibition, a 72-acre park with floral landscapes in every conceivable color and color combination. It is a treasure trove of a place for all ages, because the winding paths and the ponds with fountains and the patches of tulips wending into the distance beckon in every direction. If only I had power-driven wheels on my shoes so I could take in the whole park!
And now here we are for the grand finale—the Captain’s Dinner. I didn’t know how they would top it considering all the wonderful dinners we’ve had all week long, but they did. It was a great feeling to give our crew a big round of applause for the A-1 treatment we received from each and every one of them.