Floriade 2012 Horticultural Show

I highly recommend you make a trip to see the Floriade 2012, the once every ten years horticultural show near Venlo, The Netherlands.There are 66 hectares (163 acres) of exhibits, open areas, and woods to walk through. I have no idea how many countries are participating but there are a lot.

I am very impressed with the show. The grounds were immaculate; there was not a piece of trash, graffiti, or vandalism at the park. Many of the pavilions were strictly money-making ventures with wares from their country on sale. But I don't mind that at all and some of the stuff for sale was interesting. I bought two polished stone eggs (€3 for both) in the Pakistan pavilion and a small olive wood bowl (€5) in the Tunisian pavilion.There were a lot of semi-precious stone jewelry, silver, figurines, leather wares, etc.

There are many places to eat a meal, get a quick snack or drink, and a few dessert stands as well. I ate lunch at the Bulgarian cafe and had a chicken pita sandwich (apparently a traditional Bulgarian fast food item). It was delicious and cheap at €3.75. For supper I had an Indian Chicken Curry panini. That was excellent as well and was only €5.50. As I usually do, I took my own drinks to reduce my dining costs.

There were many musical activities at the show. The Floriade had several stages for their own shows and a few of the pavilions had their own musicians. Of note were the two musicians/singer at the Indonesian pavilion and the solo musician and singer at the Andes/Amazon pavilion. They were both outstanding and had unbelievable voices.

I took quite a few pictures and you can see them at this LINK. Just click on the link and then on the first picture in the album.

I spent eight hours at the show and only saw three of the five main areas and did not even see everything in each of them. The two-day pass costs only ten Euros more and is probably the way to go. The Floriade show grounds are only 50 minutes away from my home. Take A2 north and then exit onto A73 toward Venlo. You will see signs for the Floriade; follow them. Parking is at an off-site area with shuttle buses. You MUST buy a €10 parking ticket at the same time you buy your tickets or before you leave the show grounds. You need the ticket to get out of the parking area.