Although the weather was not as sunny as yesterday, Marion and I decided to go for a bicycle tour. After all sitting inside all day inside is also not everything.
We went for the direction of the dunes, but a bit more to the south as we have been before. There we found a small road taking us away from the busy roads into the countryside. Really a beautiful area with almost no traffic at all. This is just what we wanted… busy roads with traffic we can see the rest of the week more than enough.
Here we saw some pollard willow trees. These were luckily well maintained. So often this is not done anymore and that is a pity, because pollard willows (“knotwilgen”) belong to the Dutch landscape.
By cutting the trees in this special way the tree will grow very long straight branches. These branches could be used to make baskets and brooms.
As said, these trees really belong to the Dutch landscape and it is good to see that others think so as well.
A little after that we noticed a sandy road leading into the Dune area. We decided to take this road. Already very soon it was made clear to us that this was the “Bram Hijmanspad”…
At home again I tried to find out who Bram Hijmans was and why he had this path named after him. But this without any luck.
The path leaded us through a very nice forest/dune area. Some parts the path were so bad that we had to walk, but that was okay. We enjoyed the singing of the birds. It was if they were telling that spring would arrive soon. Something that may happen from me right away.
What I really like are the free wandering cattle. Impressive. And if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone…
On our way home we stopped at “De Patatoloog”. Marion and I have been here before. It is some kind of luxury snackbar/cafeteria. Here they serve the best French fries we had since a very long time. Everything is of a very good quality. As Marion likes her French fries without any salt, they used new clean equipment for her. That we really liked. Something else as the “local fast food shop” (at least most of them).
So again, a very enjoyable day and we saw some new spots around Heemskerk. So a day well spend together!
(Edit 20-7-2014: Today I corrected the marker in the map below to the right location. It was before not even close to the correct position).
It must be fun to see all these new places around Heemskerk. But then again I can understand you miss Twente at times.
I have seen it now myself. Both places have rather different landscapes. Not better or worse, just different.
And I know how much you like the old forests of Twickel and Lankheterbos (and others).
Come soon to Twente and we all will go visit those forests 🙂
Always nice to see you settled in the west of the netherlands. An i always enjoy your photo report of the nice environment aruond Heemskerk.
With a little help from google it looks like Bram Hijmans was a composer from Heemskerk.
http://www.bergensnieuwsblad.nl/nieuws/74501-drommels-wat-een-rommel