|
Home > Flower and garden articles > We have returned from the first `Tesselaar Travel` adventure
We have returned from the first `Tesselaar Travel` adventure
 An intrepid group of Tesselaar customers joined us for a wonderful and unique trip - a garden and cultural tour of Europe and Scandinavia.
Little did we know when we left Tullamarine airport that there would be so many adventures (and laughs) ahead of us. We began the trip not really knowing each other but came back with 24 new friends each. The goodbyes at the airport were painful!
Our grand tour began with an essential visit to Keukenhof (the giant Tulip gardens in Amsterdam). The intensity of the colour was breath-taking. It was more vivid and brilliant than we could have ever imagined or have ever experienced anywhere else in the world! And the beauty of the bulbs en-masse was magical. There were sways of blue and apricot, blankets of red, yellow and green! We were all totally entranced and left vowing to plant more bulbs in our gardens.
We thought that the magic of Keukenhof was so powerful that we might be some-what jaded when we encountered the future venues. I’m happy to report that we need not have concerned ourselves because the next major stop was Hampton Court Palace in London.
Sure, the ride around town in a double-decker bus was fun, the changing of the guards and a visit to Buckingham Palace were all popular but the gardens surrounding Hampton Court Palace was a huge source of inspiration for all! We had a wonderful tour through the gardens and it was so enjoyable we almost forgot that we were nearly frozen solid. (I highly recommend thermal underwear for those dreary days in London!!)
We visited the newly renovated privy gardens, the wilderness garden with a forest of trees under-planted with naturalised Daffodils and the sunken gardens filled with the brilliant colour from bulbs.
It was wonderful to travel through Europe in spring because all the public (and private) gardens were filled with spectacular mass plantings of bulbs and the effect was bright, cheerful colour everywhere you looked.
After London we headed to the white cliffs of Dover. Not to see the white cliffs for themselves but to catch up with our ship in the port of Dover. NORWEGIAN DREAM was to be our home for the next 13 days. We were soon to discover how too much of a good thing can we wonderful!
Ship life is all about indulging in the good things in life - food, friends and relaxation. We had many wonderful nights enjoying long dinners together. However, don’t think that we were lazy. Many of us headed to the on-board gym or took long walks around the decks. We also enjoyed the many shore excursions on offer. These excursions took us on beautiful, interesting and thought-provoking journeys.
We visited Rostock in the former East Germany to see how such cities are only now close to recovering from the bombing raids of WW2. We visited Estonia to find a tiny country that was big on independence and huge on history. The town of Tallin (in Estonia) is home to one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe and so it was a treat to explore.
We also visited St.Petersburg for an eye-opening experience. Our eyes bulged with the decadence of the guilded baroque palaces which sat alongside the shabby suburbs of dirty and down-trodden homes and pot-hole ridden highways.
Following Russia was Scandinavia (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) which was, in stark contrast to Russia, sparkling clean and characterised by much plainer and more elegant neo-classical architecture. It was a refreshing change.
We indulged our childhood fantasies by visiting Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen (the fore-runner to Disney Land). This is a fairy tale fun park featuring pantomimes, big bands, fair rides, magic shows and magical gardens filled with Tulips, Daffodils and superbly fragrant Hyacinths. By nightfall the garden was even more enchanting since they were lit solely by hundreds and thousands of tiny bud lights and a display of fire works. Just being in the gardens was fun - we got caught up in the atmosphere and danced around like excited children.
After 13 days of cruising we headed for another gardener’s paradise - Cornwall on the south west tip of England. We settled into Tregenna Castle for 5 days of garden hopping.
Cornwall is very surprising. In some ways it seems hardly English at all - we’re sure some of the locals believe they are “Cornish“ rather than “English“. It’s partly because
the climate of the area is quite different to the rest of the country. It’s very close to Mediterranean and many of the gardens we visited reflected this.
We took a walk with ‘the Major’ through his delightful wild garden “Chyverton“. We found delights around nearly every corner - sways of bluebells and swags of pretty cherry blossoms. The Major himself was also entertaining, sharing with us his fancy for naked (marble) ladies!
We then explored “Trebah“, billed as “the garden of dreams“. True to its hype, it was quite heavenly with deep gullies, towering mountain sides and many winding pathways to tempt you ever further onwards. We saw glades of fern trees, walked under towering Gunnera in marshy grottos and marvelled at hillsides filled with Hydrangeas. However, to fully explore these 26 acres would take many weeks (which is a great excuse for us to return)!
Tresco Abbey Gardens was another highlight of Cornwall- and somewhat of an English secret because it’s situated on the Isle of Scilly and is accessible only by ferry or helicopter. We took the helicopter route because it saved about 4 hours, afforded us fabulous views and was much more exciting! This garden was very unique and is one of the most remarkable sub-tropical gardens in the world with its unique collection of tender plants which are impossible to grow outdoors anywhere else in England! We saw palm trees, cacti, loads of the brilliant Geranium maderense and many superb sempervivens. The other unexpected treasure we uncovered whilst exploring this garden was “Valhalla“ - an outdoor museum of figureheads from the many vessels shipwrecked nearly Scilly. Apparently there have been more shipwrecks around Silly than anywhere else in the world. (Which is another great reason for taking the helicopter rather than the ferry).
Our final day of sightseeing was something we had all been eagerly anticipating since booking the trip. It was a visit to the “eighth wonder of the world“ - the Eden Project.
Upon arrival we were aghast - it looked as if an alien had landed and was fast colonising this disused clay pit in some long forgotten corner of Cornwall possibly hoping we might not notice their presence until it was too late! However, we were soon to find out that it was indeed a human effort, and a quite deliberate one.
The Eden Project is the brain child of Tim Smit. He had a vision and driving passion to make humans understand, and appreciate, the importance of plants in our daily lives. He’s done a great job because we left in awe of the plant world. Strangely, being gardeners and horticulturalists, you’d think that we already knew a great deal about plants - but there’s always so much more to learn…. And Eden is the place to do it! The fascination of the Eden Project was a wonderful way to finish our exciting and varied adventures.
It was a weary group which started the long trek back to Australia. But we were all full of inspiration and had loads of wonderful memories, treasures and, of course, photographs, to share upon our return home.
I must say however that, despite the many awe-inspiring places we went and the incredible stories we heard, it was the people we travelled with that made this adventure so enjoyable. I’ve always found gardeners to be friendly, generous and down-to-earth which makes them wonderful travelling companions.
I am looking forward to catching up with the gang at our re-union!
Lisa Tesselaar.
|
