Thirty years ago, on our first trip to the Netherlands, my husband, Ed, and I were tired from a long day of travel, needed a place to stay and did not want to go into Amsterdam and fight the evening traffic. We discovered nearby Naarden-Vesting.
That time, we stayed in a small pension above a bar/restaurant that also served as a community hall where the locals congregated in the evenings. We’ve never forgotten the warmth and hospitality of the residents of Naarden-Vesting, so, when planning our April-May ’12 trip to Holland and Belgium, we knew we wanted to return to Naarden.
We traveled independently, navigating the countryside via a rental car from Budget (800/472-3325) and staying in rental houses we contracted via the Internet.
Since Budget quoted us $210 for a 22-day rental of a GPS, we chose to purchase our own from Garmin (800/800-1020) for $160 plus a set of European maps for $100.
We also took a notebook PC with a battery life of eight-plus hours, which enabled us to Skype our son and grandchildren and also to do research and planning for our daily activities (and translate Dutch as well).
We rented a house in Naarden-Vesting (21 Peperstraat, Naarden, Noord-Holland), April 18-May 2, that we found online through Airbnb. The rental cost €700 (near $880) per week (or €1,700 per month); since we were staying for two weeks, we were able to negotiate a better rate. There was also a security deposit of €100, which was returned to our credit card once the house had been inspected after we left, and a cleaning fee of €20.
The owner of the house was super — very helpful and accommodating, with lots of advice.
All the instructions for the heating system and the oven, microwave, washing machine and dryer were in Dutch, making the operation of them a guessing game. But, using our netbook, I was able to look up some of the terminology to figure out the instructions.
Naarden is a fortified village still pretty much intact, with bastions, ramparts, filled-in moats and a quaint city center. The woman in the tourist information office, or VVV, spoke beautiful English but had no brochures or maps printed in English. That was not a problem, as the residents of this charming village were wonderful and extremely helpful.
For example, when we bought a cell phone and calling card at the Albert Heijn supermarket (€20 for the phone plus a calling card worth €5), we had a store employee show us how to work it, but later we realized it wasn’t configured the way we were used to, and the instructions were in Dutch. I went down to the City Hall, and a court guard helped me; we became fast friends.
With a car, Naarden-Vesting is an excellent base for touring Amsterdam and the provinces of Noord-Holland, Utrecht and, possibly, parts of Gelderland.
The nearest train station is in Naarden-Bussum, about three miles away, which has a paid “park and ride” lot. From there, it’s 21 minutes to Amsterdam Central and 31 minutes to Utrecht via Hilversum. Or, six miles from Naarden-Vesting, Bussum-Zuid station provides free parking.
NANCY NORBERG
Mount Pleasant, SC