Flower City in Haarlem

Haarlem in Netherlands has a nickname “Bloemenstad”, which mean flower city. Haarlem is the centre of a flower-growing district and a major export point for flower bulbs. And they call themself this not without any reason. All throughout the city you will find different flowers. Especially in spring and summer the city is totally coloured by crocusses, daffodils, tulips and hyacynths.

On Sunday, when the decorated cars of the annual flower parade are parked at the Gedempte Oude Gracht, you can visit the special flower market.

Every year at the end of April, there is a big flower parade (bloemencorso) that arrives in Haarlem in the evening. The parade starts in Noorwijk very (too) early on a Saturday morning and arrives between 20:00 and 21:00 in Haarlem. This is a big annual event is the Flower Parade that goes from Noordwijk to Haarlem. Usually there are some 14-18 big floats like the one pictured above. In between the floats drive luxury cars decorated with plenty of flowers and brass bands play cheerful music. Here the parade stays until Sunday. The flowers mainly used are hyacinths.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haarlem

http://wikitravel.org/en/Haarlem

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/road-trips/flower-route-netherlands-road-trip/