Utrecht - Surroundings

Haarzuilens was once the seat of the Van Zuylen van Nijevelt family. In the mid 19th century P. J. H. Cuypers built the present castellated house, De Haar, on the site of the old 15th century castle. The house (part of which is open to the public) contains magnificent tapestries, Louis XIV and Louis XVI furniture, Persian carpets, Chinese vases and a collection of pictures. The house is set in a very beautiful park and gardens, with trees which were brought on horse-drawn carts from woods 20km/12.5mi away.

Interesting features of Laren are the artists' colony and the Singer Museum, with a collection which includes modern pictures and sculpture and East Asian art.

Laren is also well-known for the variety of specialty clothing shops.

The Militaire Luchtvaart Museum in Soesterberg is the Dutch Air Force museum. It has a good collection of Dutch-made machines including rare types developed in the 1930s. Very fine aviation art is on display plus an excellent exhibit of Dutch use of aviation in the Antilles during the 1920s.

There are examples of excavated crash sites from the reclaimed polders in Ijselmeer.

There are a number of attractive villages along the river Vecht and the Amsterdam-Rhine Canal: Loenersloot, with a medieval castle which was rebuilt in the 19th century; Vreeland, with its historic old bascule bridge over the Vecht; and the pretty village of Loenen. There are many houses in this area built in the 17th century by wealthy Amsterdam merchants.