Gilbert - A Trip to Drenthe

 

Yesterday we went on a trip!

We got a car and drove to Drenthe.

We were going to Balloo where there is a large field of heather that's called Balloërveld. Sullivan has been there in the past and told me to visit the sheep.

Hmm... No sheep in the sheep barn. It was a beautiful day, so they were out among the heather.

It is beautiful here, I must say.

Blue skies and open fields.

Finally I found the sheep!

They were ambling along and having fun in the sun.

This sheep was feeling itchy!

After a nice walk we went back to the car and drove to Rolde, where we got something to drink at a cafeteria. The weather was nice enough to sit outside.

And we got French fries with mayonaise, peanut sauce, and onions!

Yum Yum!

We also visited the church in Rolde. 

It seems birds claimed this mailbox. The sign says: bird nest, no mail

Inside the church was this fun distancing sign, using sheep to sheep how much distance you should keep.

There was on old baptismal font with a fish drawing above it.

And beautiful stained glass windows.

Before driving back home we walked past the graveyard of the church to visit this hunebed. It was a perfect day!

Gilbert - Back to the Netherlands...?

 

On the second day of our trip to Germany we went back to the Netherlands....?

We went to visit a hunebed! 

I love hunebedden (dolmen). And this one was new to me and my owner. It is called the 'Papeloze kerk' (church without priests) probably because it in later times sometimes was used as a place to have secret religious meetings for Protestants

On our way to the hunebed I spotted a monument for the guy who helped restore this hunebed.

They broke down another hunebed to restore this one, which was in a really bad shape. 

There's even a part of the hunebed still underground. One Dutch archeologist thought the sand shouldn't be on the hunebedden and he removed all the sand from most of the hunebedden in the Netherlands. Archeologists from other countries were totally shocked when he told them about it.

Next we went to the Eppiesbergje.

It's an old grave hill that was used between 2500 and 1200 BC

They say the hill is named after a guy who owned the land around the grave hill and hanged himself on the hill.

It was a nice hill, but if you had told me it was just a normal hill instead of an old grave hill I'd have believed it as well.

Next up was hunebed D27

This hunebed is the biggest one in the Netherlands and is next to the hunebed center which is really cool according to Sullivan.

It was quite busy at this hunebed, but I managed to get some pictures without people in it.

There was a big field of stones as well. I think it is to show people what kinds of stones were brought to the Netherlands by the glaciers. We didn't visit the center, but my owner promised me we would come back for a visit to the center soon.

Next we stopped for lunch.

I ordered Chili Cheese Fries, but I'm unsure why they were called that way, as there was no cheese involved...

After lunch we visited an old church. 

I forgot where it was and how old it was I'm afraid. And as there was a wedding in the church we didn't go in and just walked around it and looked at the graveyard.

All our visits that day so far were in the province Drenthe, next we went to Groningen!

Gilbert: A Forest Walk

 

Yesterday we wanted to go for a walk, but because it's very crowded at our usual route we decided to go to Drenthe for a walk, away from all the city crowds.

It was close to the radio telescope of Westerbork. There was a sign telling you to shut of your phone if you were walking in the direction of the radio telescope, so we decided to go in the other direction. We needed our phone to take pictures after all.

No people in sight!

Let's go this way.

It was a lovely sunny day.

I did some exploring and climbed some trees.

I enjoyed the sun.

What a fun walk.

Hmm.. Let's go this way now.

This sign means you should keep your dog on a leash. Luckily I'm a piggy.

There was a tree with a big stone in front of it with text on it.

"Through the window of my eyes."

It's a monument to the song Window of My Eyes by Harry Muskee from the Blues band Cuby + Blizzards. It's on one of Harry Muskee's favorite spots and where he got the inspiration for the song apparently.

I can understand why he liked it here.

This is a marker stone so you know where you are, I think.

I spotted this next to the marker stone.

It's a wooden chip with something written on it in a language I don't know.

More tree climbing.

Checking if my owner is paying attention and still taking pictures.

After our walk we got French fries and chicken nuggets and then we went home again. On our way home there was a lot of fog, so we were lucky to have such a nice sunny afternoon.