Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe

After seeing Rotterdam on Laura's last Friday in the NL, we set off the next day for Het Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe (Hoge Veluwe National Park) near Arnhem. We had been told time and again by Dutch friends that this was a site we needed to see. (By the way: Unless you're Dutch, however you're attempting to pronounce Hoge Veluwe is almost certainly wrong.)

Hoge Veluwe National Park is an interesting assembly of forests, sand dunes, heathland, bicycle paths, and, randomly enough, a high-quality art museum. Despite being in an isolated and unexpected location, the Kröller-Müller Museum, which was formed from the art collection of German-born Helene Kröller-Müller, contains the work of many famous artists including van Gogh, Picasso, Mondrian, Seurat, and Gauguin.

St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge, former home of the Kröller-Müller family.

We spent a day biking around in the park in nice weather. We didn't see any of the deer, boar, mouflon, or other animals that call the park home, unfortunately. Great tits (at right) were nowhere to be seen, either. But we greatly enjoyed the park and its miles of bike trails that snake over rapidly changing and scenic terrain.