Brief Introduction to the Park and Museum:

Located southwest of the town of Apeldoorn and northwest of Arnhem, the National Park "De Hoge Veluwe" remains undiscovered by the majority of foreign visitors to the Netherlands. This is unfortunate, for the 13590 acre (5,500 hectares) nature reserve contains a wide variety of habitats that can be quite surprising- from Scots pines, moorland, grassland, to numerous, often large, sand drifts; as well as various wildlife (including, but not limited to: deer, wild boar, foxes, badgers, and pine martins), the viewing of which is made easier by the several hides and elevated platforms. Free "white bicycles" are also available for visitors to the park. Be warned, however, that the bikes' brakes are of the "back pedal" variety (the "cause" of my broken foot in late June 2008). One can easily spend a full day exploring the park on bike (still relatively flat, though not necessarily so by Dutch standards, the riding is easy). On the northern edge of the park, the Jachthuis St. Hubertus (designed by the Dutch architect Berlage) is worth a visit.

The jewel of the park, however, is the incredible Kröller Müller Museum, housing not only the second-largest collection of Van Gogh paintings in the world (including "the Night Cafe"- one of his most famous works), but also a huge variety of works of other, mostly impressionist, painter's works (including those of Piet Mondrian, Georges Seurat, Auguste Renoir, and Pablo Picasso). Another outstanding feature of the Kröller Müller Museum is its fantastic Sculpture garden (with works by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore, Jean Dubuffet, Mark di Suvero, Lucio Fontana, Claes Oldenburg, Fritz Wotruba, Joep van Lieshout among others). Many of the works are undeniably strange, some very humorous, other quite unforgettable. Highlights include: Kenneth Snelson's "Needle Tower", Jean Debuffet's "Jardin d'émail" (which you can climb on/in), and Chris Booth's "Echo van de Veluwe".

If you are visiting Holland for more than just a few days, I highly recommend a visit to this lovely park and the wonderful museum within.

-Ian Rees (with a little help from Wikipedia, as well as the Kröller Müller Museum, and Hoge Veluwe information pamphlets).

Hours:

Kröller Müller Museum - 10:00- 17:00 hrs. (the sculpture garden closes at 16:30)

Hoge Veluwe National Park - from 9:00 - 18:00 in winter, to 8:00 - 22:00 in the height of summer (last entry 1 hour before closing time)

Entry fee:

€ 7.00 for the park and € 7.00 for the museum (children 6-12 half price, under six free). Please note that to visit the museum you must buy tickets for both the museum and the park.

Web sites:

Kröller Müller Museum - www.kmm.nl

Hoge Veluwe National Park - www.hogeveluwe.nl

How to get there:

The quickest way from Amsterdam, as far as I can tell, is to take a train to the town of Apeldoorn. Right outside the train station catch an hourly bus (I believe the the 110 bus) to the town of Otterlo (just west of the park), from there you take another bus into the park (ask the first bus driver for details)- where you will be given the option of either getting off at the park entrance (where one can pick up one of the free "white bikes"), or continuing into the park to the Kröller Müller Museum entrance... You can also get to the park via Arnhem (but don't ask me how) Hope this helps!

Note: If you want to visit the site of my now infamous "foot breaking incident" look for the little footbridge (note my use of the word "footbridge") off the bike path that crosses a ditch leading to the "Deelense Was" - about 2 km west of the Kröller Müller in the eastern portion of the park. If I get my way there will be located there someday a plaque commemorating the event.