I'm going to be 150% honest with you. I feel, generally, about 1,000 times more comfortable in a park than in a cafe or pub. That is not to say I dislike the generic set of pub activities -smoking, drinking, nibbling, and any number of language games- rather it is to say I prefer all those (and other) activities in the (relatively) wide open air. I know I am not alone here. In the summer time it is refreshingly common to see two youth trudging through the park with a case of beer hung heavy between them; making their way to a group of kindred who have already gotten started.

Of course, and regretably, we are now in the final third of October, and those beer and bikini days are long behind, at least for another eight months. In a sense an Amsterdam institution is going out of season. Yet, let us not indulge too long in lamentation. The parks are still open, and although our bodies are more warmly clothed we can still enjoy some bud or some brew as the trees throw autumn's first pitch. Autumn is Amsterdam, in my opinion, at its most romantic; at its most serene.

So where to go to absorb the autumn air? Really just about any park will do, and no matter where you are or where you will be there is bound to be one close. My favorites, however, (and as usual) require a bit of work and preferably a bike:

1. If it is morning (say 8 or 9 am) and some rays are coming through the cloud cover, or, better yet, the clouds are all away, the Vondelpark becomes a fantastical domain of color and mist. steeples of churches become the spires of the temples for elves; the trees become ancient things sleeping under vibrant moss; and joggers become...well they're still just joggers, but look at them run along the smoking water unaware of the magic underneath...

2. Ride south along the River Amstel long enough and you're bound to encounter, among other things, the Amstelpark. To be honest this place is still very much a mystery to me. It is a maze-les maze of places and peeps. With all the nooks, brooks, old things, and crannies (I really wanted to say 'crooks' here) scattered throughout I seldom manage to find the same place twice. If you are the type to venture into a smartshop for some of those little fungal strategies, then I recommend this as the place to go with them -if not for the countless curiosities then at least for the roosters they let roam around amongst them. In warmer months the ice-cream stand by the windmill at the southern-ish end is a welcome reprieve.

3. Amsterdamse Bos, tucked between Schiphol and Amsterdam's southwest extremities, is about the closest thing to 'real nature' you'll find in this metropole, and while I do not know if it is a fact related, somehow watching dogs sniff each other and fish things out of canals is more interesting here than elsewhere. Uncrowded, quiet, and exploding with all the silver and fire one comes to treasure in the autumn months (at least if they are all sappy like me) this is a place to go to get away from the over-crowded everywhere else.