Ottawa Hosts the Canadian Tulip Festival May 2 to 19, 2008

A kaleidoscope of more than three million tulips is the focus in Canada's Capital Region each spring as the Tulip Route follows the historic Rideau Canal to the Parliament buildings and Major's Hill Park and then across the Ottawa River to the Outaouais. All tulip events are free.

The festival has grown into the largest of its kind in the world from a gift of international friendship given six decades ago. In the fall of 1945, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands presented Ottawa with 100,000 tulip bulbs in appreciation of the safe haven that members of Holland's exiled royal family received during the Second World War in Ottawa, including the birth of her daughter in an Ottawa hospital maternity ward, which was declared Dutch soil by an cct of the Canadian Parliament.

Parliament Hill, where the Gift of Tulips were first planted in 1945, presents a stunning array of tulips in front of Canada's majestic Parliament Buildings and the Peace Tower.

Across the street, Capital Infocentre will provide visitors with all they need to know to make their excursion to the Festival and the Capital truly memorable.

For more details, visit www.tulipfestival.ca.