Exploring our 'Hood

We've taken some time this past week to get out and walk around our neighborhood. It is very lovely and quaint. We have parks to the North and South and the Amsterdam Forest (Bos) to the West. Our apartment is across the street from the grocery store and there are a number of shops and restaurants along the main drag. It's no Park Slope, but we are enjoying it!

View from our upstairs landing of our neighbors.

The park to our North is de Braak (meaning the fallow). It has a number of "hiking trails" (all flat terrain). On the Sunday when we went walking, there were a number of older couples "hiking" with hiking poles and all. There are a few nice bodies of water with lily pads, herons and flowers.

As we walk South of our apartment, after 1 block we reach this Windmill dating to the 1600s, which now is home to a restaurant. Behind the windmill is Broersepark (Brother Park), which has an awesome bird aviary that I'm sure Jude will love as he gets older. Peacocks, ducks, geese, swans, parrots and birds I've never seen before all live together, some in netted areas, others completely free. Around the corner is a beautiful lake with a curved bridge and landscaped flowers. Beyond that is a playground and fountain that on the warm Sunday afternoon was taken over by children and their parents as a kiddie pool. I heard a number of families speaking American English and hope this will be a good spot to meet some friends. I cruised by there this past Thursday, but the only occupants were a butt-naked toddler and his chain smoking mother- I steered clear!

After the parks, we continued down the main street to the Old Village of Amstelveen. There were some really beautiful, old homes. The village has a number of bars and restaurants including a winebar that we went to on Friday night and I hope will be a regular spot of ours. The owner spent a long time chatting with us, which was a treat. She was probably just interested in Jude, but we pretended that she was interested in us! 

And finally, I took some pictures of the walk to our bus stop. After our street, we cross a wooden bridge over a canal, then we pass some lovely canal-side residences. We are definitely not in Amsterdam, but are really happy with what our neighborhood has to offer!