Since I was born in the Black Forest, the woods are what I miss the most in NL. But I’m very happy to live only a 5-minute walk from the green lung of Amsterdam Noord, the oldest city forest. What I love about this little refuge for birds, dogs and nature lovers is its wildness — you have a couple of broader paths where you can cycle but off that network you can really stroll through the bushes on adventurous dirt tracks. Due to the limited size of the area, I can already dream all those paths, but since the vegetation is changing with the seasons, the birds continuously renew their repertoire and there’s always new cute dogs that I haven’t met before, I never get bored of Vliegenbosch.

There’s also a camping site at Vliegenbosch that seems to be quiet and popular at the same time, but I can’t really judge it since I’ve never been inside… once you come out of the forest again at its Eastern end, you’ll see some very nice examples of boathouses, some of which are actually B&Bs.