Today, we took the train from Centraal Train Station to Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, where I picked up a rental car from Avis for our drive to Hoge Veluwe National Park and our further adventures in Germany, France, and Belgium.
I wanted to drive a VW Golf, but Avis selected an Opel Astra with Belgian license plates (since I would return the car in Brussels). The Opel looked nice, but the 1.4L engine was a complete dud with no power going uphill. This would become a bit frustrating later on the German autobahn.
With my Garmin GPS setup (it took a while to get oriented in the Netherlands), we began our drive to Hoge Veluwe National Park.
We parked in the nearby parking lot and picked up free bicycles to ride around in the park.
We first decided to explore the sculpture park and then explore the paintings in the museum.
The Sculpture Park is large and spread out, containing many contemporary and modern sculptures.
We rode around the park until we got to the main Kroller-Muller Museum.
The Kroller-Muller Museum had a fantastic collection of Van Gogh paintings (second only to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam).
Before looking at the paintings, we decided to get a quick lunch. Unlike most museum cafeterias, the cafeteria entrees here were quite delicious.
The Kroller-Muller Museum has a beautiful collection of famous paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, etc.
After visiting the museum, we explored the Hoge Veluwe National Park further. We got on our bikes and rode around the park, visiting the lake and other areas.
We stopped by for a quick ice cream snack on the way around the park.
We rode our bikes past the St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge, closed for repair.
There were lots of beautiful water lilies floating about.
We rode our bikes past the lake to the desert part of the park, with sand dunes and dry vegetation. This is when I realized that I lost my jacket. I raced back to the lake and found and recovered it.
We ran into some wild boar on the way back to our car.
We dropped off our bikes at the ample Bicycle Parking and drove our car back to Amsterdam.
I wanted to drive a VW Golf, but Avis selected an Opel Astra with Belgian license plates (since I would return the car in Brussels). The Opel looked nice, but the 1.4L engine was a complete dud with no power going uphill. This would become a bit frustrating later on the German autobahn.
With my Garmin GPS setup (it took a while to get oriented in the Netherlands), we began our drive to Hoge Veluwe National Park.
We parked in the nearby parking lot and picked up free bicycles to ride around in the park.
We first decided to explore the sculpture park and then explore the paintings in the museum.
The Sculpture Park is large and spread out, containing many contemporary and modern sculptures.
We rode around the park until we got to the main Kroller-Muller Museum.
The Kroller-Muller Museum had a fantastic collection of Van Gogh paintings (second only to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam).
Before looking at the paintings, we decided to get a quick lunch. Unlike most museum cafeterias, the cafeteria entrees here were quite delicious.
The Kroller-Muller Museum has a beautiful collection of famous paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, etc.
After visiting the museum, we explored the Hoge Veluwe National Park further. We got on our bikes and rode around the park, visiting the lake and other areas.
We stopped by for a quick ice cream snack on the way around the park.
We rode our bikes past the St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge, closed for repair.
There were lots of beautiful water lilies floating about.
We rode our bikes past the lake to the desert part of the park, with sand dunes and dry vegetation. This is when I realized that I lost my jacket. I raced back to the lake and found and recovered it.
We ran into some wild boar on the way back to our car.
We dropped off our bikes at the ample Bicycle Parking and drove our car back to Amsterdam.
