Baarn
Baarn (population: 24,471) is a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The municipality covers an area of 33.32 km² (of which 0.47 km² water).The municipality of Baarn also includes the following towns, villages and townships: Eembrugge, Lage Vuursche and Soestdijk.
The city is known as the place where the Royal Family used to live, although since the eighties they moved to Den Haag (The Hague). In Paleis Soestdijk, there lives now only the Queenmother (called Prinses) Juliana and her Husband Bernard. The crown prince Willem Alexander went to the 'Nieuwe Baarnse School' and to the 'Baarnsch Lyceum', before moving to Den Haag.
Baarn has a nice shopping street, called 'Laanstraat'. In the North-West (Hoog Baarn), there are very pricy houses with big gardens. Other places include 'het Cantonspark' (a botanic Garden), Kasteel (=castle) Groeneveld. In the North and West the are polders, and the river Eem is nearby. In the East and South there are woods, all with good possibilities for cycling.
It has a railroad station, with trains going every half hour to Utrecht (30 minutes) Amerfoort (5 minutes) and Amsterdam (about 40 minutes. The A1 Highway runs close to Baarn.
