The Amsterdamse Bos (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: ''Amsterdam Forest'') is an

English park The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

or landscape park in the municipalities of

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. Although most of the park is located in Amstelveen, the owner of the park is the City of Amsterdam. The park was mainly built in the early 1930s, mostly by the unemployment relief. Because of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

interrupting the building process, the last tree was not planted until the 1970s. Annually, almost 4.5 million people visit the park, which has a size of and is approximately three times the size of

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

in New York City. It houses a number of animal parks, sporting clubs, rowing courses, gardens and remembrance monuments. Throughout the decades, the location has seen different gatherings, political manifestations and (i.a., free) concerts. These often took place on the so-called ''Vietnam Meadow''. Despite extensive protests, this part was turned into a tennis venue in 1994. The park is bisected (but can not be reached by) the A9 motorway.

Amenities

Bosbaan

An important part of the park is the rowing course called de Bosbaan ("Forest course"), which was opened in 1937. The course was an alternative for rowing on the Amstel river, or on the canal surrounding the polder of the Haarlemmermeer, which were the two traditional locations for rowing competition. It is the world's oldest artificial rowing course. In 1977 it hosted the World Rowing championships. In order to meet international competition regulation, the Bosbaan was widened to 118 meters (8 lanes for competition and an additional preparation lane). In 2014 the Bosbaan hosted the World Rowing Championship for a second time.

Recreational areas

There are several open areas and meadows within the forest. Some of which are located along an artificial beach along

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

s and have sanitary, food and children's play facilities for summertime recreation. One of the open areas is bordered by a man-made hill. The area of the park called ''Zonneweide'' is an area designated for

naturist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

recreation.

Swimming

There are several ponds and

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s that can be used for swimming. There is a sand beach along a part of ''Grote Vijver'' pond. Weather conditions permitting, the water in the ''Groot Kinderbad'' children's paddling pool is activated from May until September.

Farms

''Geitenboerderij Riddammerhoeve'' is a goat farm. Next to offering simple food dishes and making goat milk-based dairy products on site, it offers a

petting zoo A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many genera ...

with

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

s, a playground and a

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

. ''Boerderij Meerzicht'' features a

pancake A pancake (or hotcake, griddlecake, or flapjack) is a flat cake, often thin and round, prepared from a Starch, starch-based batter (cooking), batter that may contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or fryi ...

restaurant and deer watching.

Open air theatre

In the open air ''Amsterdamse Bos Theater'' paid concerts and plays are held during the Summer period.

Scottish Highlanders

To combat the

forestation Forestation is either growing existing forests ( proforestation) or establishing forest growth on areas that either had forest or lacked it naturally. In the first case, the process is called reforestation, or reafforestation while the second is c ...

in some areas, Scottish Highland cattle have been placed in the park. Locked in the area by

cattle grid A cattle grid – also known as a stock grid in Australia; cattle guard, or cattle grate in American English; vehicle pass, or stock gap in the Southeastern United States; Texas gate in western Canada and the northwestern United States; and a ...

s, they make sure the meadow doesn't grow to become a forest while remaining a natural look that could not be achieved by

mowing A mower is a person or machine that cuts (mows) grass or other plants that grow on the ground. Usually mowing is distinguished from reaping, which uses similar implements, but is the traditional term for harvesting grain crops, e.g. with reape ...

Rental facilities

Canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s and

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

s can be rented at several locations.

Camping

At the Day Camping people can put up a tent for a day. For longer stays there is Camping Amsterdamse Bos, a campsite that rents out sites for tents, caravans,

campervan A camper van, also referred to as a camper, caravanette, motor caravan or RV (recreational vehicle) in North America, is a self-propelled vehicle that provides both transport and sleeping accommodation. The term describes vans that have been fitt ...

s and has campsite facilities. It is not permitted to stay the night and sleep anywhere else in the forest.

Image gallery

File:Buitenveldert West, Amsterdamse Bos - panoramio.jpg, Blossom Park in Amstelveen File:Bosbaan.jpg, Bosbaan rowing course File:Amsterdamse Bos - panoramio.jpg, The forest in November File:De Heuvel in Bosplan, Bestanddeelnr 919-4863.jpg, The Hill in 1966 File:Bootjes op de Bosbaan, Bestanddeelnr 912-4208.jpg, Boat race in 1961

References

External links

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Live weather in Amsterdamse Bos