Great senna3. I spent my youth in Kortenhoef and Ankeveen and the Ankeveense plassen were quite close. In fact Ankeveen (Herenweg) started at the end of our road. My love for nature dates back to that childhood period living as free as a bird in a dutch polder. We had whole meadows to play in. Ditches to cross, enough water to skate on in winter and to go out fishing in summer time...
This one goes - as you will understand - to my faves!
Anna, we left Amsterdam and went to Bussum to offer our children more or less what you describe. Not a Dutch polder, instead the heath fields (we are living at a 100 meters distance). But for scating we too went to the Ankeveense Plassen!