Sometimes you just want to leave the hustle and bustle of the Randstad completely behind. While most people flock to the coast on their days off for a walk through the Schoorl Dunes, the true, serene escape lies much further east this time.
As soon as you leave the highway behind and enter the endless forests of the Veluwe, you’ll immediately feel a sense of calm wash over you. In the heart of this vast green oasis lies the Kröller-Müller Museum, a hidden cultural paradise where art and nature merge in a spectacular way.
Face to face with the masters of modern art
The contrast couldn’t be greater. You park your white bike among the trees, step inside the light-filled building, and suddenly find yourself face to face with the absolute best the world has to offer. Whereas in Paris or Amsterdam you’d spend hours waiting in line among the selfie sticks, here the iconic masterpieces simply hang on the walls in complete tranquility.
This is the place where you can lose yourself undisturbed in the starry sky of Vincent van Gogh’s *Café Terrace at Night*. It’s no coincidence that they house the second-largest Van Gogh collection in the world here. Be sure to stroll on into the adjacent galleries. Here, Picasso’s early Cubist experiments hang side by side with Mondrian’s clean lines. It feels almost surreal to view such world-famous art while watching the pine trees sway through the large windows.
One of Europe’s largest open-air museums
As soon as you step out the museum’s back door, you enter a vast art forest spanning no less than 25 hectares . This isn’t just any garden with a few statues; it’s one of the largest outdoor sculpture gardens in all of Europe. The cool thing about it is that the boundary between nature and culture completely blurs. As you stroll along winding forest paths, you suddenly find yourself face to face with monumental, abstract sculptures that blend perfectly into the natural surroundings.
An absolute favorite is Mr. Jacques, the iconic bronze figurine that seems to greet you in a friendly way. The best part is simply wandering crisscross through the grass, because some of the artworks are so enormous that you can literally walk underneath them or climb inside them. The contrast between the sleek, modern art and the whimsical Veluwe trees makes every turn on the path a surprise.
Cycling through a living painting
Your visit isn’t truly complete until you venture into the rest of the 5,500-hectare national park. Forget the car and just grab one of the thousands of free white bikes here. One moment you’re pedaling through dense, whisper-quiet pine forests, and the next, the bike paths open up to immense, golden-yellow sand drifts and purple heathlands stretching all the way to the horizon.
Follow the winding paths deeper into the park to the monumental Jachthuis Sint Hubertus, the former country estate of the founders of this magical place. This iconic building is perfectly reflected in the large pond and looks as if it came straight out of a design magazine. Take a moment to stop here, stretch your legs, and realize that you’ve just cycled through a living work of art.
