Bergen NH: parking, the museum and the road to the sea

Bergen has 12,311 inhabitants and does not itself lie on the sea. The NH in the name stands for the province of Noord-Holland and is how the Dutch tell this Bergen apart from the other places of that name. The beach starts at Bergen aan Zee, 4.8 kilometres west as the crow flies, with forest in between. Museum Kranenburgh stands in the village, and to the south-west of it lies the historic country estate Het Oude Hof, about a kilometre from the centre in a straight line.

Bergen is an inland base rather than a beach one. Alkmaar, the nearest city, lies about 5.5 kilometres to the south-east, and Amsterdam roughly 36 kilometres away in that same direction. Both are straight-line distances worked out from coordinates. The drive we have not measured.

Where can you park in Bergen?

The free alternative we do know: the fietstransferium on the Groeneweg, a car park where you leave the car and take a bike on. The car stands there for nothing, and from there it is less than five kilometres through the woods to Bergen aan Zee.

What paid parking in the centre of Bergen costs, we have not been able to check at the source, so it is not stated here. The gemeente Bergen (Bergen municipality) works with parking zones, and the rate of 2.45 euros per hour that we verified for Bergen aan Zee (zone B) need not be the same here. So do not carry that figure over, and read the signs by the bay you are standing in.

How do you get from Bergen to the beach?

To Bergen aan Zee, along the Zeeweg. That is the only access road to that village, so if it jams, it jams there. What you pay to park once you are at the sea, and how close the car parks lie to the beach access, is on the page about Bergen aan Zee.

If the car park on the Uilenvangerweg is full, the municipality sends you on to Egmond aan Zee, Hargen aan Zee or Camperduin. If you would rather not take that chance: leave the car at the fietstransferium on the Groeneweg and do the last kilometres by bike.

What is Museum Kranenburgh?

The museum of Bergen, and by far the most searched-for thing in this village, more than the beach, the parking and the restaurants put together.

More than that we are not writing down here for now. Opening times, admission prices, the address and what exactly hangs there we have not been able to check at the source for this page. Bergen has a name as an artists’ village, but the dates, names and movements that go with that we have not verified, so we leave them out until we have. Look on the museum’s own site before you go.

Where can you eat in Bergen?

That is not here yet either. We only put a restaurant on this site once we have checked the opening times ourselves at the address, and for Bergen that has not been done.

The figures do say one thing: of all the places to eat in the village, Loetje is searched for most. That is a search figure, not a recommendation, and we have checked neither its address nor its opening times.

Where can you walk around the village?

Two areas lie close enough to do from the village.

Het Oude Hof, a historic country estate, lies about a kilometre south-west of the centre as the crow flies. De Bosjes van Verwey, a nature reserve run by Landschap Noord-Holland (the Noord-Holland landscape trust), lies 3.75 kilometres due north. That second area is in fact closer to Schoorl than to Bergen: from the centre of Schoorl it is less than a kilometre.

Whether opening times, barriers or dog rules apply, and which paths run there, we have checked for neither area.

What is nearby?

As the crow flies from the centre of Bergen: Schoorl and the Klimduin (the climbing dune) both lie 3.4 kilometres north, Bergen aan Zee 4.8 kilometres west, Groet 6.1 and Hargen aan Zee likewise 6.1 kilometres, Camperduin 7.1 kilometres.

Those figures are worked out from the coordinates, in a straight line. By road it is further every time, and to the coast you are often quicker by bike than by car.