I forgot to mention that the Northern Ireland tour also included dinner at Belfast Castle hosted by the Belfast City Parks Department, a visit to the Ulster American Folk Park, and dinner at the Silver Birches Hotel in Omagh. After the Northern Ireland segment, we flew to Amsterdam for the Netherlands segment, three days packed with activities. The first daffodil activity was a visit to the flower auction at Aalsmeer. It is held in a giant building, only part of which you can see in this picture. The growers bring their flowers in at 3 am, buyers can look at the flowers at 5 am, and the auctions start at 6 am. There are several simultaneous auctions. There are many different types of flowers offered, and we did not arrive early enough to see the daffodils. Auctions are over by 10 am, and the flowers are on their way to the packing and shipping houses that are adjacent to the auction facility.
We then visited the old hamlet of Zaanse Schans and the fishing village of Volendam to get a taste of the historic Holland. In the late afternoon we had an hour to visit the Hortus Bulborum in the village of Limmen. This is a collection of historic bulbs, not just daffodils; however an hour was not enough time to see all the historic daffodils. We finished the day with a dinner cruise on the canals of Amsterdam.
Kirby Fong