This is the best way to see the world's most spectacular tulip show in Netherlands

Humanity's love for a tulip is writ large at the Keukenhof gardens in Lisse, near Amsterdam. We've arrived at the world's largest tulip display on the closing day of a round-trip Scenic cruise out of Amsterdam.

On the seven-night Windmills, Tulips and Belgian Delights itinerary, we've explored medieval towns; stopped by castles and engineering marvels; beheld artworks of legend; and feasted on culinary classics.

But there are some on the 159-passenger Scenic Pearl "space ship" whose love of gardening (and tulips) has drawn them to this river cruise above all others. And now we are here, amid 7 million blooming bulbs.

The 32-hectare gardens teem with thousands of people on this bluebird spring day, and I feel my mother near me. How she adored tulips, tending her own like babies. I wish she'd seen these magic carpets of a flower so treasured, it was once worth more than gold.