Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tip toe through the Tulips, eh?

With daylight savings, come thoughts of spring - and if you are thinking of tulips, Ottawa, Canada is your springtime destination. From May 12th - 23rd, Ottawa will be celebrating its annual Tulip Festival with music, buskers, WWII memorabilia and of course, millions of tulips. There's a bit of history behind this colourful, fragrant display - in May of 1940, following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch Royal Family were spirited out of the country to rule in exile from the United Kingdom. In June of that year, Princess Juliana brought her daughters Princess Beatrix and Princess Irene to the safety of Canada, They were housed at Stornoway — now the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition. And there, two and a half years later, Princess Juliana gave birth to a new daughter, Princess Margriet, at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The problem with an otherwise joyous occasion, was that should baby Margriet be a Canadian by virtue of her birth, she would jeopardize her position in the line of succession. The solution? Temporarily declare the hospital Dutch territory and ensure the princess would hold exclusively Dutch nationality.
May 2, 1945, Princess Juliana and her children returned to the Netherlands. To thank Canadians for their hospitality, and their part in liberating the Netherlands, Princess Juliana sent a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs. Juliana, who became Queen of the Netherlands in 1948, continued to send a gift of thousands of tulip bulbs to Canada each year of her reign.
Visit the Canadian Parliament Buildings, eat a beavertail at the ByWard Market, explore the Canadian War Museum, sleep behind bars in the former Carleton County Gaol (or at least take the Haunted Walk), tour the Supreme Court or check out the locks on the Rideau Canal - but be sure to take some time to stop and smell the tulips!



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