Groenendaal, Heemstede

A favourite place for many walkers, dog walkers and families. This is a fairly busy park offering wide pathways, lots of water areas, a beach and lots of shade from either sun or rain. You can wander aimlessly here, doubling back or going off on parallel paths, or you can follow one of the marked routes. However because it is so popular, this place is only really fun if your dog is well socialised and has a reasonable recall in the case of unwanted or inappropriate play, especially with children around.

You can park directly opposite the Pannekoekenhuis Konijnenberg, just drive up through the gates of the park driveway to get to the parking spot. There is a gated entrance to this park, but technically it is not completely fenced off. To the right of the entrance is a cycle path and further right of that cycle path is a leash-only area. There is no fence containing your pup at this point but elsewhere it is either fenced or has a natural water barrier.

There is a field opposite the beach area where cows are kept. Sometimes (although rarely) you may see some wandering around between the walking areas. If you see fresh cow poop on the floor, you know you need to keep an eye out for them.

There are two beaches here, the most popular one is in the middle of the park and is a popular spot for people to sit and chat while their dogs play. Join in or avoid it, there is a pathway just at the back of the beach that takes you out of their way if you need a quick exit. There is a smaller and lesser used beach closer to the road if you walk towards the scouting hut.

Somewhere loosely in the middle of the park is a large circular sand pit, which is a great place to let your dog dig without wrecking the landscape. I have never seen kids playing in this.

Do walk right around the park, up the lesser trodden slopes that barely look like footpaths, over all the wooden bridges for some lovely views, through the muddy paths that go round the duckweed filled ponds and try to cover every possible pathway and this will take you out of the busy areas or to high up spots where you can look over the park. If you do that, you will manage a good hour walking, otherwise it’s about a 40 minute circular round.

Mostly all the water here is clean, just a little muddy here and there. It seems to be flowing and connected so it doesn’t seem to be affected much by algae in summer. That bright green duckweed in the ponds here is perfectly edible, even by humans. Tastes a bit like cress…

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