Tulip Fever from Youtube

https://youtu.be/9uu2PcLziZo

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Though it filmed in England, the movie Tulip Fever refers to Netherland provinces in the 1700s. However, our 2026 visit to the country shows a type of fever and mania for tulilps still exists. Joining a Viking River cruise called “Tulips and Windmills,” we hit the biggest blossom mass at Keukenhof Gardens outside Amsterdam.

              Some 45,000 people showed up for that top day of tulip season, which runs a surprisingly short span between the end of March and early April. With seven million—yeah, seven MILLION bulbs planted, no words match images in explaining why so many people want to see this garden.

Earlier on our voyage, we visited a tulip farm where owners revealed a couple of sad situations. One: The real business involves selling bulbs, so instead of going into bouquets, most plants get deadheaded, with flowers cut off at the top and thrown away. And two: Despite packaging that permits bulbs back to the United States, most will die before their ideal planting period in October. So live in the moment and enjoy the flowers in their homeland.

              That homeland provides an enjoyable itinerary that goes beyond flowers. Windmills join the Viking trip title, and we saw many. At the Kinderdijk world heritage site, getting close to blades felt a little eerie, so I could understand why a slasher movie maker came up with The Windmill Massacre.  Movie buffs also know that Alfred Hitchcock made an Amsterdam windmill important in his Foreign Correspondent film but he famously preferred shooting in studios more than real locations.  Of course, he had an eye for what looks striking, and windmills fit that bill.  

              Movie locations showed up at other stops on the trip, with World War II history coming at Arnhem, real life setting for Operation Market Garden and A Bridge Too Far. Movies often ignore reality, so I asked our history expert guide for his evaluation of the film’s accuracy.

              And spoiler alert, the bridge seen today is not the one from the movie, which filmed nearby at Waal Bridge in Nijmegen.

              Since our Arnhem stop ran longer than usual, a small group of us from the ship set out to see what the city’s coffee bars look like, coffee representing a euphemism for drugs in the Netherlands.

Some of us don’t smoke and prefer real coffee but given the nighttime hour, we headed to a different kind of bar, one that served local beer.

Other stops gave us the chance to try regional delicacies like herring in Enkhuizen. A duck liked it. We preferred pastry in Veere and apple cake in Zierekzee. And Fred—well he managed to find ice cream at nearly every location.

Sweets fueled us for other tours where history and movies often combine.  For instance, a documentary called Van Gogh: Of Wheatfields and Clouded Skies explains why a little area called Otterlo houses the world’s second largest collection of the artist’s paintings. But no one needs to ponder why so many find themselves loving Vincent.  

Another set jetting opportunity comes in Zeeland, featuring sites covered in a Netflix war film called The Forgotten Battle. Its location include Veere, whose streets and buildings survived World War II and a museum introduced to an artist whose style we adored. 

Zeeland also surprised us with a fascinating museum dedicated to a disaster we never heard about previously, a flood in 1953 with at least 1,800 victims and inspiration for a movie called De Storm.

Another surprise came in Middleburg—Vladimir Zelinksy was there the day before us. As ancestral home for the Roosevelt family, Middleburg serves as host to the international Four Freedom awards.

When it comes to surprises, how about surfing in downtown Rotterdam? Yup, it happens. But then Rotterdam goes for the unusual, like architecture featuring cube houses.

All this makes for a lot of sightseeing in just 10 days, and that ignores a stop in Belgium. But cruise ships make the process easy—no need to pack every night.  Hanging out on board presents plenty of ways to relax while the ship moves.  Nightly lectures and entertainment give insight to regions visited—plus provided music played earlier.  Of course, I had to ask one performer about favorite local movies the answer hadn’t previously hit my radar as a Netherlands project.

 Meeting new friends, eating fine food, and seeing beauty in nature means tulip fever is something you want to catch.