Where spring is at its loveliest in Europe

Spring brings the first warm rays of sun, delicate greenery and early blossoms in brilliant colors. We enjoy spring walks and spread out our picnic blankets in fields or meadows. People have welcomed this time of year with festivals and rituals for centuries. Here are a few places in Europe that are especially good for a spring break.

Daffodils, hyacinths and crown imperial lilies as far as the eye can see. But it's tulips in particular that attract tens of thousands of tourists every spring to the Keukenhof Gardens, about 40 kilometers from Amsterdam. Every year, more than 7 million bulbs are planted by hand. Visitors can get horticultural inspiration here or just revel in this sea of color and fragrance.

The island of Mainau is a paradise of flowers on Lake Constance. Its climate is mild, which is why palm trees and Mediterranean plants grow here. A stroll along Spring Avenue, with its snowdrops, crocuses and, later, more than 450 different tulip varieties, gets you in the mood for spring. When the weather is good, you can see the snow-covered Alps on the other side of the lake.

In the first days of April, Bonn's old town is an explosion of pastel tones. That's when cherry trees that line the streets bloom in pink. Tourists and amateur photographers from all over the world come to the city on the Rhine to take cherry-blossom selfies. Japanese tourists in particular seem especially impressed by the spectacle. Back home, they celebrate hanami, cherry blossom festivals.

Every year, wild-growing crocus neglectus transform five hectares of the gardens of Husum Palace into a purple carpet — and that has been the case for hundreds of years. It's unclear why these crocuses were first cultivated there. Possibly medieval monks wanted to get saffron from them. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong species, as saffron comes from crocus sativus.

South Tyrol in the Italian Alps is a wonderful place to go hiking — especially when the apple trees bloom in pink and white from late March to early May. South Tyrol is perfect for apple trees because of its sheltered location, its temperate climate with warm days and cool nights, abundant sunshine and relatively low precipitation. More than 950,000 tons of apples are harvested here annually.

The people of the Atlantic island of Madeira welcome spring with the traditional Festa da Flor flower festival. The islanders decorate the capital Funchal with countless blossoms and wear imaginative floral costumes. The festival takes place during the second weekend after Easter and lasts for two days. The climax is a flower parade through the city with magnificently decorated floats.

Things also heat up on the coast of Spain, at the Fallas de Valencia in March. This spring festival is presumed to have started in the 18th century, when artisans burned the wooden racks they had used for their candles and lamps in the winter, as they were no longer needed. The highlight of the festival: after 10 p.m., huge papier-mâché sculptures are burned on the streets and squares.

From the evening of April 30 to May 1, men and women led by the Green Man and May Queen turn Edinburgh and other places in the British Isles into colorful fantasy worlds. They're celebrating Beltane, a modern revival of the ancient Celtic fertility festival that marked the beginning of the pastoral summer season. Maypole dancing and bonfires, also of Celtic origin, take place as well.

The animal world also offers spring spectacles. Beyond the season's cute offspring, there's a lot going on in the sky as well, when cranes return to northern climes from the south and fly over Germany to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia. One good place to watch them is at Günzer See, a lake in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, where up to 70,000 migrating cranes make a stop on their journey.