[the water tower in very early morning sun]
It's not on the beaten bulb track, but it's a fine place to stay if you're in Holland. Villa Augustus in Dordrecht is a converted C19 water tower and is surrounded by water, although the original water ponds have been drained and are now wonderful gardens where food and flowers are grown, and guests are free to wander, wonder, and rest.
The history is fascinating (there's information on the website) and, as with all these sorts of endeavours, the scope and scale of the work that has gone into transforming the site and the buildings are quite amazing. Something very special has been created here.
It's a serious gardening enterprise as well as a hotel and huge restaurant in the enormous former pumping station (I particularly liked drinking coffee at the 'reading table' which is like something in a library, but packed with magazines and journals in many languages).
And even though it's south of the bulb fields, there was some inspired tulip planting. The species tulips above match the brickwork of the water tower, while the modern variety of t. clusiana below demonstrates why there are more of this type of tulip appearing these days.
[*Simon's favourite poem is 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. He'd be in his element at Villa Augustus]
