Feel the fitness bug biting morning, afternoon or night? You need the Vondelpark. A great park for running, biking or skating, bang in the middle of Amsterdam and close to the hotel.
To get there, turn left outside the hotel, then take a right at the traffic lights and 200 metres later (or 19.3 seconds if you're Usain Bolt) you're in parkland.
Tip: Watch out for bikes and other fitness fanatics who don't share your great sense of direction.
With over 10 million visitors each year, the Vondelpark is the most famous park in the Netherlands. Well, famous in the way only parks can be. Grass and tree famous, that sort of thing.
10 million visitors works out at 21 visitors per square metre. But don't worry, they don't all visit on the same day.
Just for comparison, New York's Central Park is visited by a mere 5 people per square metre. Who's famous now, Big Apple - ha!
The Vondelpark was named after a Dutch poet, Joost van den Vondel, and was opened by a bunch of Amsterdam noblemen and businessmen in 1864. In 1953, it was sold to the city council (remember the businessmen I mentioned earlier? Smart guys.). The de-centralised city council Stadsdeel Oud-Zuid is now responsible for maintenance of the park so you can thank them for its upkeep.
In 1996, the park was been awarded the status of governmental monument (rijksmonument) which is kind of a big thing around here.
The Vondelpark is situated in the centre of Amsterdam, just a five-minute walk from the Leidseplein and walking distance from the famous Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum and Van Gogh Museum. That's a lot of museums. The Vondelpark is 470.000 m2 and is divided into 16.000 m2 of grass and sideways, 2.000 m2 rose bushes (seriously, they measure the rose bushes in square metres?), 8.000 m2 of water (why not add depth, go crazy and give us cubic metres, eh?), 11.000 m2 trees and bushes and 10.000 m2 of tarmac and playgrounds. The total distance of the park, if you use the 'so-called' large round, is 3.3 km.
At the Vondeltuin, on the southern side of the park you can rent inline skates. If you're starving after all that running, skating, walking or cycling, the park has four places where you can have a drink or something to eat and a good sit down as well. In summer time, roughly from June till the end of August (anyone notice that they're a lot more precise about tarmac than they are about dates?) the open air theatre has performances 4 days per week for free. Finally, if you want to relax, guess what, there's another museum! At the Filmmuseum in the park, you can get to know more about the film and even watch a film (perhaps it's a film about museums).
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