We are visiting Amsterdam in early May. We always rent bicycles for our Amsterdam visits and have done lots of day trips from Amsterdam - Amstel, Broek in Waterland. We enjoy cycling about 15-25 miles a day. Two years ago we took the train to Rotterdam for the day, rented municipal bicycles to tour the city, and had a great time. We want to take another day trip from Amsterdam this year: either to Den Haag or Utrecht, with some interesting bicycling if possible. If we go to Den Haag, we would like to visit the Escher Museum, and if Utrecht, the Rietveld-Shroder Huis. The Museum and the Huis are equally interesting for us. Is Den Haag interesting to see cycling? What about the countryside around Utrecht? Any forest? How convenient is everything?

I think Den Haag would be interesting by cycle. Also, we went to Utrecht also and there were a lot of bicycles. We weren't on them.

The Rietveld-Shroder Huis is only open at certain times and at weird certain times, you have to make a reservation and then it seems like it was only Wed at 2pm - 5pm. Something like that. Anyway, it didn't work out for us but I hope you can make it and that you write a trip report, I'd like to read it since we didn't get to go to the R-S Huis.

Since you enjoy museums and architecture, have you been to the Kröller-Müller?
It's one of my favorites. Take the train into Otterlo and the museum is in a national park the Hoge Veluwe, you can grab one of their free bicycles and ride through the beautiful park and go to the museum. The museum has a collection that is worth the trip for any art lover and the park for a nature lover.

I think, because of your interest in the Rietveld-Shroder Huis you may appreciate the KM even more. It's a beautiful building in it's simplicity and it's function. It houses the 2nd largest collection of Van Gogh also, plus others.
I wouldn't mind going back and spending the night in Otterlo just to have more time to appreciate the museum and park. We didn't give ourselves enough time.

Here's the website for the KM www.kmm.nl

Although, I really enjoyed the Escher and it was nice to see some of his other work.

Another vote for Den Haag.You have a beautiful park that runs from the city to the beach(have lunch on the beach with some grilled calamari and a beer?) along with a city that has many interesting places to visit. I loved the Escher museum in Den Haag!

Plenty of woodland around Utrecht, but not so easy to get to from the city.
You could visit the city first then get the train out to a smaller town and rent bikes for a bike ride through the woods. I am surrounded by woodland here in northern Utrecht province.

Baarn is Escher lived and worked from 1941 until 1970, when he moved to a retirement home in Laren. Sadly Baarn missed out on the museum as Den Haag had more clout. However the woods around Baarn were inspiration for Escher. The Escher Foundation is still in Baarn.

The woodland around Utrecht is pretty easy to visit. Take a train to Hollandsche Rading and you be in the woods within 5 minutes from the train station.

Den Haag is a great city to visit with a completely different feel to Amsterdam.

My choice (if the weather is good) would be to rent a bike in Amsterdam and take it to Utrecht (you have to buy a ticket for your bike on the train) then have a look around Utrecht en bike towards Baarn.
In Baarn you could visit Paleis Soestdijk were our queen grew up. It's open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. http://www.paleissoestdijk.nl/welkom.html
From there you could bike thru some woodland to Hollandsche Rading maybe stopping in Lage Vuursche on the way to try the Dutch pancakes. Or to Hilversum and take the train back to Amsterdam.

Not sure if this would interest you, but a slightly offbeat thing to do in Utrecht is the museum of mechnical musical instruments, where the tour ends by a vast Mortier organ which plays boogie-woogie beside a dance floor. In a converted church:

http://www.museumspeelklok.nl/?Language=en

And the Hague has the Mauritshuis gallery with the Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Den Haag and Utrecht are both nice, but just to make things even more difficult; the Vecht river is lovely to cycle along. Between Amsterdam and Utrecht, with places like Breukelen, Loenen, and castle 'de Haar' in Haarzuilens http://www.kasteeldehaar.nl/. It's where the rich merchants from Amsterdam had their country houses.

If you choose the Lage Vuursche route you can also see kasteel Drakenstein, which is the Queen's country home. She lived there with her husband and sons before becoming Queen, and plans on retiring there again at some stage. It isn't open to the public but you can peer through the gates and see it.

I can recommend the pancakes

Paleis Soestdijk is just around the corner from me. The tours are in Dutch only I believe and need to be booked online for a set time, but the gardens are open to anyone for a small entrance fee, and are lovely.

Great feedback everyone. I'm still torn by the choices - I now have even more to think about - and may not decide until we are in Amsterdam. But I'll try to report back afterwards.

Have you done a cycling trip through the bulb fields around Keukenhof?

http://www.keukenhof.nl/en/28/bike-rental.html

You can actually cycle through the park at Keukenhof the evening of May 7, if you will be there then. It usually is not possible to cycle within the park.

I'm enjoying reading this thread, although we will be driving, its great to get ideas of places to stop along the way.

Do you think there will still be 'bulbs' to see in Utrecht the first week of June?

Sorry that should've read <b>Keukenhof</b> not Ultrecht.......sorry.

Keukenhof closes on 20 May aussiedreamer. No bulbs left by June I'm afraid.

thanks hetismij......

Yes, good thread. We will be in AMsterdam for 5 days mid-May, so great timing, thanks.

The Kroller-Muller sounds great, the other option is Utrecht for a day trip. If the weather is nasty, does Utrecht win?

Thanks

Kroller Moller is best when the weather is good; I would go for Utrecht if it's really bad weather (though May could be nice).