The sacrifice

The sun had just come up.

You would imagine that after a week of hard work (stop laughing Mum), I would use my Sunday for a nice lie-in. But no. I made the ultimate sacrifice to show you yet another part of the Netherlands. The alarm went off at 6.30 and I was on the road by 7 am! Just so you know.

When you've lost the padlock...

Of course there was another motive as well: Sunday was a day of two halves. The morning would be nice and sunny, the afternoon would be blustery and wet. I don't particularly like walking around in blustery wet woods, so morning it was. And as there was a fair bit of driving to do beforehand, it was early as well.

The stones mark the place of the WWII hidy hole.
Discovered by chance, the Germans captured three out of eight inhabitants
and later shot those three in Westerbork.

It was worth it though. The sun was just peaking over the horizon when I pulled up in the little parking area, put on my walking shoes, gave Janny a nice spot peeping out of my bag and grabbed my camera. Map my walk was busy recording how I walked into nothingness (very very very bad connection) and off I went.

And almost the very first thing I encountered was a prehistoric burial mound. Apparently there were several more, but I missed those. To be honest: one big mound of dirt dating from pre-history is pretty much like the next anyway. Feel free to cough a bit right now.

One of two wild animals I saw: this beetle and a very fast squirrel

Anyway, the walk continued into the woods. Pretty much the same as the other wood I went to last week. Filled with trees and such. Yet, very different at the same time. This wood had many more openness to it. It was a mixture of natural growth and planted (ie regimented) growth and it seemed to be a bit younger. Whether that is true or not, I don't know, it just felt like it.

The village of Anloo

Of course it was helped by the fact that the sun was shining as if the afternoon's bad weather was still several hours away. Plus the occasional view across the fields was nice as well. 

A 'Hunebed'

Apart from the burial mounds, there were plenty of other things to see. The views obviously, I mentioned those. But also the other pre-historic burial mound: the Hunebed. During the last ice-age, large boulders arrived from Scandinavia and were left behind when the snow and ice disappeared. The Funnelbeaker culture used those boulders to build their graves. A bit like the Dolmen in Ireland, yet with boulders instead of flat stones.

In the Urn Field,
what looks like a spade handle shows where the urns are.

A bit further on in the walk, there was a Pinetum. Think Arboretum, but with different kinds of pine trees only. The next field/area I encountered was modern, but based on the old times: an Urn Field. Basically an area where people would bury the urns with the remains of their loved ones, to remain there forever. 

'Shaggy', the Chinese Cypress in the Pinetum

By the end of my walk, I had done close to six kilometers. As I had forgotten my chocolate treat, I had my remaining sandwich and a large glug of water and then drove home. It was a good day.