Pink flowers ()
As spring unfolds in all its glory, so too does our desire to get out and see nature’s greatest show of the year. While Netherlands’ tulip fields and Flower Parade might be the stuff of legend, not every trip has to involve hours of driving and overnight stays! Those presently calling the Rhineland-Palatinate home might wish to check out the blossoming beauty on full display at any one of these places:
Smack-dab in the middle of this pretty town near the French border lies a vast oasis of blooming beauty. The Rose Garden, in existence for more than 100 years already, offers 1,500 different types and varieties of this most regal of flowers. The meticulously landscaped surroundings of leafy trees and ornamental ponds add yet more beauty to the scene. When it’s time for a coffee and cake break, the cute Dornröschen cafe will surely oblige. Events such as concerts, garden markets and picnics in the park provide all the more reason to visit. The Rose Garden is open April-Oct.
Sayn Palace and its Butterfly Gardens
Located about 10 miles north of Koblenz is the Sayn Palace complex, a mix of palace, museum, castle ruins and spacious landscape gardens. It’s best visited in the warm months of the year. A highlight to any visit is a stroll through the Butterfly Gardens, where exotic specimens flutter about one’s head. Other animals to see include turtles, quails, iguana and koi fish. A single ticket gets one into buildings and gardens.
Blossoming beauty awaits within Kaiserslautern’s city limits. The Kaiserslautern Garden Show sprang to life in 2000, when it served as the grounds for a vast horticultural show. For gardens, make way to the Kaiserberg, where there’s also a restaurant and a church fashioned of willow boughs. Aside from all the greenery, there’s plenty to delight kids, including large dinosaur models, a spacious playground and a mini-golf course. The garden is open from April 1 through Oct. 31.
Trier Electoral Palace Gardens
Conceived in the style of an 18th-century French garden, the elegant grounds in front of the Kurfürstliches Palais in Trier are a treat for those who like their greenery served with a generous dash of Baroque. The park’s features include a mirror fountain and lots of sculptures of rulers and mythological figures. To the back of the palace, the grounds of the Kaiserthermen offer a more relaxed atmosphere, taken advantage of by picnickers, sunbathers and friends gathering for a chat.
Those up for a hike bursting with natural beauty will want to make way to the Eifel region, where wild narcissi, or daffodils, turn fields into carpets of sunny yellow. There are quite a few pockets in which these delicate blooms gently quiver in the air, including in the Perlenbach and Fuhrtsbach river valleys near Monschau, as well as in the Oleftal valley near Hellenthal. The peak time for exploration is in mid-April, when the flowers tend to peak. The “Narcissus Route” is a signposted hiking route through the Perlenbachtal, and the Monschau-Höfen gate to the National Park offers an exhibition about the daffodils.
