Amsterdamse Bos parkrun, NL
Amsterdamse Bos parkrun, NL
Turfed out of my accommodation early because of a fire (minor, almost sorted out before I had to leave), I was wide awake for Amsterdam. I suspect the loveliness of the Autumn leaves on huge trees would have sorted out bleary eyes in any case, but I took them in in all their glory.
Parking is apparently free on a Saturday, and is available in the top right of the route map above, next to the rowing lake. You still have to take a ticket, (which meant undoing a seat belt for me in my right-hand drive car) but then the barrier just opened at the end. Some of the car parks further down have a couple of hours free parking, and I would have been inside that, but given the pay stations were all closed up, I am sure I could have stayed longer.
The run director started talking in Dutch, but was just asking the Dutch speakers present whether she could do the rest in English, rather than both languages, so all the international crowd were well catered for. In fact, I didn't hear anyone involved with the event speaking in Dutch, and many were English, as were the participants. That meant people happily addressed each other in English without checking, and that just worked - I was even asked "are those your kids?" by a lady whose son was playing football with them, and enjoyed the double-assumption.
The morning had been rainy, but that cleared towards 9:00 leaving mist over the water and puddles on the course. A few longer steps or leaps took most of us over the puddles, but there may have been a few damp feet by the end. That's all you'd get, though, as it's a solid surface all round, and just the occasional bike to watch for and avoid; no mud.
There's also barely any elevation, which I'm sure I'll write on every Dutch parkrun. This one did feel as though it had a couple of different inclines, and it is distinctly uphill towards the finish, but all of that barely registered on the GPS record of the route: it's been true of everywhere so far, as I ended up walking 25,000 steps in the day, and only just hit the watch's target of going up the equivalent of 10 flights of stairs. And most of those were probably done on actual flights of stairs, rather than outside on hills.
It's a lovely area, and a lovely run. I'd hope that all those tall trees would given some serious shade in the summer, and today they were a dramatic backdrop. Attendance varies, somewhere under 100 for now and 70 today, after a mammoth 257 at the first event back in 2020 (after which they had a very long gap before no.2, which was on 28/8/21).
The course page says that the toilets in the Cafe Bosbaan aren't available till 9, and those in the Boswinkel not till 10, but there didn't seem to be an agitated crowd at the start, so they'd either come from nearby, or there are other options to find.
Afterwards a very international crowd stood around chatting, while I smiled at those kids playing and was thought to be their father, and the sun poked out to warm the day up a little. Lovely run, on a lovely day, and simple enough to get to - the park is accessible via public transport from the city and may well be walkable, especially if you stay S-SW of the Rijksmuseum.