Exchange Zones

colorful, spacious 3 storey family house 1 hour from Amsterdam, near many lakes for all kinds of watersports. Ideal for biking, 2 bikes available for you to use. many family attractions close by.
What to do in our neighbourhood?

There are a lot of nice, pittoresque towns and villages at the lake 'ijsselmeer', for example Hoorn, Schellinkhout, Venhuizen, Wijdenes, Andijk, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, Edam, Volendam and Marken.

There are many attractionparks and playgrounds for the children, for example: http://www.hokusspokus.nl/virtueletour/index.html (hoorn), http://www.speelhoorn.nl/ (Hoorn), http://www.speeltuin-enkhuizen.nl/index.htm (Enkhuizen), http://www.sprookjeswonderland.nl/ (Enkhuizen), http://www.neshof.nl/ (Onderdijk)

Other big and nice attractionparks in the Netherlands are:

* http://www.duinrell.nl/, in Wassenaar

* http://www.slagharen.com/, in Slagharen

* http://www.efteling.nl/, in Kaatsheuvel

* http://www.avonturenpark-hellendoorn.nl/, in Hellendoorn

* http://www.walibi.nl/walibiworld/home/index_nl.cfm, in Biddinghuizen

* http://www.speelstadoranje.nl/, in Oranje (all the attractions are inside)

*boats; rental of surf-boards and kite surf-boards; http://www.rentasurf.nl/frames.html, rental of 'whisper boats'; http://www.dewaterspiegel.com/, rental of different kind of boats; http://www.rijo-bootverhuur.com/, ferry boat between enkhuizen and stavoren; http://www.veerboot.info/index_gb.htm

Visit the dynamic shipyard in Lelystad. there is the 'Bataviawerf' a center for traditional shipbuilding. at this moment a group of young people built a reconstruction of 'the zeven provincien'. this famous ship will probably be finished around 2015. http://www.bataviawerf.nl/en/index.html

The ferry of teso; http://www.teso.nl/index.php?lang=en, brings you in about 20 minutes from the city den helder to the island of Texel. see the beautiful pictures of this isle; http://www.picturesofholland.nl/texel/texelframe.htm. Ecomare is the the center where you everything can learn about the nature on texel, the wadden region and the north sea; http://www.ecomare.nl/emc.asp?pageid=490

*mills; http://www.digitalefotositecorenjoke.com/kinderdijk_engels.htm., http://broodbakken.nl/index.html, http://www.zaansemolen.nl/, http://www.kinderdijk.nl/index.htm.

*international wooden shoe museum; http://www.klompenmuseum.nl/engels/index.html.

*childrenfarm; http://www.dewoid.nl/index.html, http://www.boerengolf.nl/english

In about 2 hours, you will be at the north sea beach of egmond aan zee, bergen aan zee and schoorl. auround this area are beautiful forests and dunes.

Hoorn has a good public transport; you can go to amsterdam, by train in about 50 minutes. there are many attractions and museums in the capital of the Netherlands:

* vangoghmuseum; http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/,

* rembrandthouse; http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/,

* annefrankhouse; http://www.annefrank.nl/,

* rijksmuseum; http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/,

* audiotours; http://www.walkthewalk.nl/,

* canalboats; http://www.canal.nl/,

* museum nemo; http://www.e-nemo.nl/,

* specialty stores in the heart of amsterdam; http://www.de9straatjes.nl,

* flowermarkets; fleamarket waterlooplein, etc. http://amsterdam.urbanvisit.com/.

Visit also the "black" market in beverwijk; http://www.debazaar.nl/index.html.

* map of amsterdam; http://www.hot-maps.de/europe/netherlands/amsterdam/homeen.html.

Enkhuizen has a special open air museum called the 'zuiderzee museum'; http://www.zuiderzeemuseum.nl//, which you should definitely visit.

Long time ago, on 28th may 1932, the final gap of the Afsluitdijk was closed between the zuiderzee, the wadden sea and the north sea. the south side of the afsluitdijk was called ijsselmeer. look at the websites for a number of short films about the history of the afsluitdijk; http://stem-nos.kpn-is.nl/flash/afsluitdijk, and; http://www.eendijkvaneendijk.nl/arbeiders.html.

In alkmaar, edam and hoorn are the famous cheese markets; http://www.beemster.fr/, http://www.beemster.de/, http://www.beemstercheese.com/othercountries/, http://www.edammerkaasmarkt.nl/english/1/, http://www.cheesemarkets.nl/

In one and a half hour you can reach the beautiful nature reserve "nationaal park de hoge veluwe ;" http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/ with it's museum of art "kröller möller"; http://www.kmm.nl/

Discover the dutch towns with pittoresque centres like: haarlem http://www.tijgerweb.net/haarlem/, leiden, delft http://www.krogtweb.nl/delft/, utrecht, amsterdam, groningen, zwolle, maastricht. they are all beautiful!

And last but not least....there's a homepage and a special 'kidssite' (eng-fr-es-de-nl) with a lot of information about the netherlands; http://www.thehollandring.com/dutchculture.shtml, http://www.discoverthenetherlands.org/