Amsterdam - Nearby Sights

• + Muiden/Muidersport. A small castle about 16km east of Amsterdam. You have to take the tour to get in the castle (Fl 7.50). They have a hawking demonstration in addition to the tour.
  
• + Naarden. A fortified city about 23km east of Amsterdam. They have tours of the tower of the church in the city center (Fl 4.00), the top of which gives a good view of the city walls. The walls are huge, earthen walls, with a double moat, and you're free to explore most parts of them at no charge.

  However, there's also a fortification museum here that gives you a better look at the walls. The walls are the same as outside the museum, but the museum displays are in the passages inside the walls (the passages are closed elsewhere). And the posters they sell here are cheap - I got one of Naarden for f2.50, the price of a postcard at the expensive places in Amsterdam. You can buy a similar poster outside the museum at a cost of f12.50 - the price of the museum admission plus the cost of the poster in the museum. They accept museum cards.

• Ruine Brederode, near Santpoort (north of Haarlem). Take the train to Santpoort (north or south) and head south-west (north-west). The castle is really a tower, and parts are in ruins. However, they let you explore most of it. When I went, there was some sort of children's event going on. I was still able to go up and down both staircases in the tower, and walk through the other parts. Pretty nice, but small. My entire trip took about 3 hours, which includes waiting 20 minutes for the train at both ends of my trip. I.e., it won't take you long to see this castle.
  
• Nederhorst Kasteel. A small castle about 30km south of Amsterdam. The area was deserted when I visited. I snapped a picture, but I didn't go in.
• Voorm Forts. In the late 19th century, they built a series of forts around (but well outside) of Amsterdam to defend the city. The airplane soon made the forts obsolete, and they were abandoned. I rode my bike to three of them, but there isn't much to see and it didn't look like you could get into them.
• + Zaanse-Schans. The government moved several windmills and old houses here to create an old village. 3 of the windmills (at least) are working, and you can go inside to see them work. Lots of tourists here; come early for best viewing. You can get here by taking a train from Centraal Station to XXX.