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Wednesday, October 31, 2018

A vacation in six walks - Fourth walk - Zutphen

The first week of October I got to have a free vacation by house sitting for my sister again who lives in te East of the Netherlands in a town called Zelhhem, which is in a region called Achterhoek.
 
During the week I went on six medium to long walks in different parts of the region. 
I cannot walk anywhere without taking pictures, so I will take you along with me vicariously by giving you a photographic impression of each walk. That means six posts of just landscapes, castles, windmills and other lovely scenery. 

I sure hope you will enjoy the view!

Fourth Walk - In and around the city of Zutphen

My fourth walk took me to Zutphen, which is a beautiful city along the river IJssel. I walked trough its center and also along its border which consisted of park like landscapes and lots of canals. And of course I came along the IJssel itself as well.

Unfortunately to get from place to place I had to pass some rather boring suburbs, so this was not my favorite walk of the week. It made me realize I'm very much a landscape walker, much more than cityscape, if you know  what I mean.

But there were still plenty of pretty sights to be had, so here's an impression of my walk of that day:



Market day!








This is a remnant of the old city wall.









It was a day of reasonably pleasant weather. Not too hot, not too cold and no rain. So...no complaints. :-)

After four days of walking however, I was really starting to feel it in my legs and feet and took a day off. So the fifth day of my vacation was spent mostly with my feet up. It was a bit warmer and so I could sit in my sister's patio and read and nap and read again. All the better to gather some strength for two more walks, which we'll get to in two more posts.

Until then I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day!

Sunday, October 28, 2018

A vacation in six walks - Third walk - Hackfort

The first week of October I got to have a free vacation by house sitting for my sister again who lives in te East of the Netherlands in a town called Zelhhem, which is in a region called Achterhoek.
 
During the week I went on six medium to long walks in different parts of the region. 
I cannot walk anywhere without taking pictures, so I will take you along with me vicariously by giving you a photographic impression of each walk. That means six posts of just landscapes, castles, windmills and other lovely scenery. 

I sure hope you will enjoy the view!

Third walk - Hackfort Estate

The area where my sister lives has a lot of castles. Now don't go imagining huge fortresses or enormous buildings with high walls around them. Most are of a friendlier size and nature, and form the center of beautiful grounds and estates that house lovely landscapes, farmlands and forests.

Hackfort near Vorden is one of those types of castles and it is one of my favorite places in the whole world, so of course one of my walks would have to cover the estate and grounds around it. Vorden is also the town I originally come from, so I can always kind of feel my roots pulling at me when I go there.

This walk was by far the longest and most intense of the entire week. Before I started I wasn't quite sure if I was up to it, but it went quite well, so I'm glad I tried.

Here's an impression of this lovely day:

"To live is to travel, but time is too short."











See what I mean about the castle?




This building is next to the castle and I had a very good latte and apple strudel there.

This is small vineyard for local wine.



All in all I was pretty proud of myself for being able to do this walk at all. I'm more of a medium distance walker than long distance, so yay me! ;-)

Weather wise it was another good day. Sunny with white clouds and not too warm. Excellent walking weather.

Hope you are not bored yet with all this walking, because we are only halfway my vacation. Will see you back in my next post for walk number four. Until then I wish you all a wonderful and artsy day.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

A vacation in six walks - Second walk - Dutch open air museum

The first week of October I got to have a free vacation by house sitting for my sister again who lives in te East of the Netherlands in a town called Zelhhem, which is in a region called Achterhoek.
 
During the week I went on six medium to long walks in different parts of the region. 
I cannot walk anywhere without taking pictures, so I will take you along with me vicariously by giving you a photographic impression of each walk. That means six posts of just landscapes, castles, windmills and other lovely scenery. 

I sure hope you will enjoy the view!


Second walk - The Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem

The Dutch Open Air Museum is a huge outdoor museum in Arnhem that is all about how the Dutch lived through the last few centuries. On the grounds all sorts of farms and town scenes are rebuilt and actors give an impression of how people used to have to work the land or in the city.
The grounds also show a lot of different sceneries straight from different regions in our country, of course including all types of windmills as well. Often historical buildings were literally moved there in pieces so they could be preserved for future generations.

While I walked there I got the distinct impression I was walking among all the different cliché postcards you can buy in tourist shops in my country. That of course meant there were plenty of photo opportunities. It is indeed very pretty.

So here's an impression of my visit to this museum:

This is not the museum, but Arnhem's train station. I thought I would add a bit of modern perspective. ;-)


























The museum houses some lovely gardens and a park as well. It's really big and if you get tired of walking everything there are trolleys that will take you from place to place. I did most of it on foot and only took the trolley once, just to have been on the trolley, if you know what I mean. :-)
So this was definitely a walking day for me.

Weather wise it wasn't all that great. There was quite a lot of rain, but with sister's umbrella and the opportunity to go inside all the different buildings it was doable. At the end of the day the sun actually peeked through the clouds as you can see a little in the last few pics.

Well, time to put your feet up again and rest a little before we go on the longest walk of the entire vacation. Wishing you all a wonderful and artsy day.