The rolling dunes
Terrain nobody expects who thinks the Netherlands flat.
Donarreiskoffer — CC BY 3.0 · Eric de Redelijkheid from Utrecht, Netherlands — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eric de Redelijkheid from Utrecht, Netherlands — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Eric de Redelijkheid from Utrecht, Netherlands — CC BY-SA 2.0
By train from Amsterdam to Haarlem (20 minutes), then a train to Overveen or a bus to the Zeeweg entrance, about forty-five minutes in all. Better still: hire a bicycle in Haarlem and ride to the dunes and on to the beach — about eight kilometres on cycle paths entirely separated from cars, and the authentically Dutch way to spend the day.
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Zuid-Kennemerland National Park is a belt of dunes, woods and lakes between Haarlem and the North Sea, running to some thirty-eight square kilometres — the nearest genuinely wild country to Amsterdam. The terrain surprises anyone expecting a flat Netherlands: rolling sand dunes, some of them tens of metres high, separated by damp hollows where small woods grow, with lakes among them. This is a rare European ecosystem, fully protected, and it runs right to the edge of the sea. The park holds a herd of European bison reintroduced in 2007 in a project to return natural grazing to the dunes — among the first such experiments in western Europe. They are seen only from designated paths. Entry to the park is free with many walking and cycling routes, and it ends westward at the wide sandy beach of Bloemendaal.
Terrain nobody expects who thinks the Netherlands flat.
Wide sand at the park's western edge.
Zeeweg 2, 2051 Overveen