We will b ending a bike trip in Amsterdam in may and will have three days there as our home base. Would like to take train maybe north for day trip. Any ideas.
Are you excluding trains to the south and to the east? Is Alkmaar too touristy for you? Will you have visited Haarlem already? What time of year?
So easy to take trains to wonderful Keiden, Delft, The Hague Haarlem and Kinderdijk via Rotterdam. All on same line and can combine some of them.
North of Amsterdam the historical port cities of Hoorn and Enkhuizen are very much worth a visit.
If you still got your bicycles, you could do worse than putting them on the train to Alkmaar, and cycle back via Schermerhorn, De Rijp and the string of villages along the river Zaan (Krommenie, Wormerveer, Zaandijk etc.)
And that wonderful city between Haarlem and The Hague (Den Haag) is called »Leiden«.
Yes we would like to go to the west or the north as last year we biked from Bruges to Amsterdam and this year are going in a round-trip from Amsterdam east we are going at the middle of may.
Enkhuizen is a great day trip! About an hour train ride from Amsterdam. There is a beautiful outdoor "open air museum" there. We also enjoyed walking around the town.