De Hoge Veluwe

Or the long ride....

Well I arrived in Holland okay. Accompanying me on my flight was about 20 blokes celebrating a bucks party. They were drunk before they boarded the plane (the flight was at 7:50am) and made the flight quite interesting!

I spent the rest of the day catching up with family which was nice. It had been two years since my last visit so we had a lot to catch up on.

Today we went for a nice bike ride in a national park (one of two in Holland). The park, called De Hoge Veluwe, is in the east of the country near Apeldoorn.

Once you pay to get into the park you choose a bike and begin riding. The bikes are colour coded, with the white ones being free. Other colours denote special bikes (such as tandems) but we did not see many of them. The white bikes are fairly basic, but they did the job.

The park is set on a site that was hunting grounds for the wealthy Kroller-Muller family in the early 1900s and has since been given to the state for safe keeping. Since taking control they are trying to return the park to its original state (which seems to involve a lot of sand dunes) so a lot of the trees in various areas have been chopped down to facilitate this (it makes for interesting transitions between the various park areas as well).

We stopped in the centre of the park for a coffee and a quick look in one of the museums. Whilst there I went to the toilet which I had to pay to use. Is it just me or is paying for the toilet but providing bikes for free just a little strange?

After riding a little longer we stopped to have some lunch. Jitta had packed a heap of lovely food along with a couple of bottles of wine which was all fantastic. After riding a little further we arrived at the hunting lodge that the Kroller-Muller family built to stay in while using the park. It was a depressing building complete with a tower that seemed perfect for throwing someone off!

We were now about halfway around but the wine had kicked in and all we felt like doing was sitting and having a nap. But the sun was finally shining and a light breeze had started so that spurted us on.

We made it back to the beginning and returned the bikes before jumping in the car to head back to Capelle aan den Ijssel. Once back there we headed to Wims brother's place for dinner and a few drinks.



My nans siblings - Gonda, Rut and Gerda



Lunch in the park



The Kroller-Muller house



More house



Their private lake



Me, Nolan, Luuk, Wim and Jitta



Don't push me in!