Column | Looking for the best park in Amsterdam

This summer I’ve enjoyed sitting in our city parks again – we have many and most of them are fine. But what is the ultimate ‘sitting’? By that I mean: to get to rust, and you only really experience that rust when it’s busy nearby. Let’s take a look at that idea. Looking around you, undergoing happiness in silence. This happens naturally in foreign cities. After tossing around for an eternity, there is suddenly a nice bench in a park.

Secluded from the raging traffic by trees and shrubs, the clock stops, a sparrow hops through the grass, a duck quacks, your brain calms down. That’s how I remember Inner Temple Gardens, in the heart of London. Just suddenly hidden in the green: completely zen on a hectic afternoon.

Le jardin des Rosiers in Paris, too. Delightfully simple where everything just wasn’t there yet.

What unites places: there is nothing to experience. They are instant paradises surrounded by urban noise. The question then is: where is the best place to ‘sit’ in Amsterdam?

The mercury changes above twenty degrees Amsterdam’s view park turns me into a festival site too quickly

The Western Park? Has been on the rise for years, but in a downward direction according to the above criteria. The green patchwork next to the Staatsliedenbuurt is more restless than dull. Too many party people, too many cafes and restaurants. Plus a burgeoning herd of e-bikes that will make your life miserable.

Then the Vondel Park. Not really. The mercury changes above twenty degrees. Amsterdam’s view park turns into a festival site too quickly for me.

Also read: Local residents sometimes go crazy with nuisance ‘amusement park’ Vondelpark

The Rembrandtpark has a high ‘relaxation’ level, but then again: what should you recover from at the Westring? coins actually for all parks outside the ring road and in Noord. The Flevopark in East is also out of the question: calm enough, but around it too little cauldron to make you long for a quiet bench.

Park Frankendael is moving closer. Charming and well-arranged, a pleasure spot in the Watergraafsmeer. But then the environment should be a bit more hectic. Something similar applies to the Beatrix Park in South. Great location to come to yourself, but the contrast with the neighborhoods around it can be determined more sharply.

The Oosterpark? There is enough excitement there at the Linnaeusstraat, and yet, the park is often hardly sheltered. The small beautiful Wertheimpark can also be opened to me.

The Sarphati Park! It is enticingly peaceful along the always restless Ceintuurbaan. There are places to read a book at your leisure, precisely because the crowds are really close – but not really meant to be. The Inner Temple Gardens of Amsterdam.

Okay. But. You only really ‘sit’ perfectly in the…

Erasmus Park. Not famous, no tourists – a nice oasis in the increasingly vital Amsterdam-West. Located so low along the Jan van Galenstraat that you can almost look over it. There is no bag to do. Just one takeaway. The artsy flower garden Miracle Garden waits quietly and patiently for its visitors.

The ‘Jardin des Rosiers’ in Bos & Lommer!

Go see that, but not all together please.

Auke Kok is a writer and journalist.