Travels: Drenthe & Gelderland, The Netherlands

 This year we went to two different places for the holidays, but again in our own country. I just didn't like to investigatie if there were restrictions, what were the restrictions, what to do to cater to the restrictions etc, because restrictions where different in every country in Europe and could change every day. By staying in The Netherlands my only fear was that restaurants would close up again, because good food covers at least half of what you can call a great vacation, don't you agree?

Anyway, the first week of our vacation we went the province Drenthe. My choice because I wanted to see 'hunebedden', ancient burial sites from prehistoric times. They're cultural heritage, but I had never seen them before.  

 

 

Something else that I wanted to see is former transit camp Westerbork,  from where Jews and other minorities were send to concentration camps elsewhere in Europe, but unfortunately it was booked for the whole month, due to time slots for musea. Same for Veenhuizen, a museum about the history of workhouses and jails. 

Enough other things to see in Drenthe, so boredom was not an issue. We went to an open air museum about housing through the ages. At the time some people lived in farm houses of course, but what I found very intriguing were the people, very poor people, who lived in so called 'plaggenhutten', or sod huts, which were nothing more than dug out holes covered with heather sods. People lived in such holes far into the fifties. Just seventy years ago. Unbelievable. 

 

After a week of we went to the Veluwe, in the province Gelderland. We go there every year, so it wasn't really a surprise what we would find there. My husband and I hiked and biked, to admire the blooming heather, while the kids stayed home by the swimming pool.

My husband went mountainbiking with our youngest and did some climbing with the oldest (in trees, that is, because there aren't any mountains in the Netherlands; the highest point is a bit above 300 meters, but a lot of The Netherlands is far beneath sea level).
We did some back to school shopping in a nearby city and visited a castle, because that has become sort of a tradition. And then, before we knew it, it was time to go home.

The last years I find it not so hard to go back home after a vacation, due to lots of inspiration places away from home can give you. After ten days I long to go home to make new things for my house, to alter the interior, to bake and cook meals that I had during our vacation, and more such things. Do you recognize this?