Biking In De Hoge Veluwe National Park

I came across the website for this park in the Netherlands while searching on-line for something else. The park is made up of several different ecosystems which were man-made originally, but are now left natural. As you go through the park, the landscape changes from sand dunes to forest to something that resembles a midwestern prairie. It was pretty bizarre!

The main way to see the park is on a bike. The park is known for it's interesting system of bike rental. They have these old, refurbished white bikes located throughout the park. There are some at each entrance as well as at some other locations within the park. You pay an entrance fee, which gives you access to the park and the white bikes. As long as a bike is parked in one of the designated areas, you can take it and ride it. When you are finished or if you stop for a break, you just leave your bike at one of the designated areas. If someone takes the bike you had, you just take another one. The main rule is that you can't chain the bikes up. The park, while not beautiful, was pretty cool. The only problem was that the bikes were pretty basic. Although it was fairly flat, I could have used a few gears! I could have brought my bike, but Rick's was stolen so we both decided to go for the "white bike" option. Moreover, we liked the whole communal bike idea.

The Kröller Müller Museum, which has the largest collection of Van Gogh paintings outside of Amsterdam, is also located inside the park. It also has a very nice sculpture garden.

You can check out the websites below for more information:

http://www.goworldtravel.com/ex/aspx/articleGuid.98a646d5-b248-4eb0-bf31-2fca412ccb6d/xe/article.htm

http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/

Sidenote: Rick likes to take pictures while riding. Therefore, there are a lot of pictures of my backside!