In my last post about sakura spotting at Westerpark, I had mentioned a place called the Amsterdam Bos that had a lot more sakura flowers tucked within its Japanese gardens. While we had initially planned to cycle to Amsterdam Bos from home, my other half and I had gotten quite lazy to hop on our bicycles of recent and the cold weather didn't help either. 

 

Given that our next best bet was to hop on the bus and take what was supposed to be a short walk, we decided that that could have been pretty enjoyable too. What we didn't know, however, was that we had chosen the wrong entrance to kick-off our walking journey to the Japanese Garden of Amsterdam Bos, so we ended up trekking in the forest for approximately an hour. By my standards, that's a lot of exercising done in a single day but I was very determined to see these blooms.

Known as the Bloesempark to the locals, the more accurate way to visit the garden is by making your way to the Hueseplein bus stop at Amstelveen. From there, the walk should only take you approximately 25 minutes as opposed to the hour walk that I did. Here's a sneak peek of what would be waiting for you at the gardens:

The thing is, we were actually visiting the Bloesempark on the 11th of April but the peak blooming season was a week before. Despite being there when the blooms have supposedly faded, we were still at awe at how beautiful the trees were. The gardens is notoriously popular to locals and visitors when the trees are in full bloom, with news reports stating that people were queuing for 2 hours just to enter the gardens a week before.

 

We're not sure if it was by luck or maybe people had already seen the best of blooms, but we walked straight into the gardens with only handfuls of tourists walking around. Taking pictures and videos without people in the background was made much easier, so I guess it was okay that we didn't get to catch the sakura trees at its very best.

Unlike the visit at Westerpark, there weren't as many people with picnic mats or food stuff at the Bloesempark. This could have either been caused by how far the park is from amenities like restaurants and washrooms, or we were just there at a really good time. Entrance to the park is free, and so is visiting the Amsterdam Bos (forest?). The one thing I couldn't stand during our visit though was how rude people were to the trees.

 

At one point, we spotted some tourists pulling at the branches of the trees just to get a picture with the flowers in front of their faces. This noticeably caused some damage to the trees, as the branch looked rather limp and bent when they were done. As for the tourists, they simply got their pictures and left. I did hope there were some authorities at the Bloesempark to help curb these activities but there were none available. Just a whole bunch of excited people.

 

 

Because we had expected a walk and bus ride home, we left after hovering around the park for about an hour. This time, we made sure to head toward the Huiseplein bus stop instead of where we had come from. Take note though that if you're traveling with the GVB pass that allows you unlimited rides on most of Amsterdam's trams, buses, and metro systems, you won't be able to make it here. The bus that stops at Huiseplein runs on a different system, so you'll have to pay a separate fee to hop on it.

The good thing is that it isn't too far out of the city center, so I do believe you can get to the gardens in about an hour. I do recommend comfortable shoes for your walk however, and then switch shoes if you're trying to take pictures #fortheGram. Unfortunately as I'm writing this now, the blooms should already be over so you'll have to wait till the next Sakura season to see Bloesempark in its best light. So, would I go back next year if we're still in Amsterdam?

But maybe we'll skip the 1 hour hike along the Amsterdam Bos. Yeap.