The Hike 10 - Wetlands Meadows Tour

Still prepping for my hiking holiday in a month's time...and not a lot of it - time. So I did a quick one hour training around my own wetland meadows. And to keep it interesting for myself, I took some photos for you. Want to walk along?

The starting point was the village of Nieuw-Helvoet, where I live. At the end of my street I took a right which takes you directly out of the village into the "polder". If you don't know - a polder is low lying cultivated land criss-crossed by drainage ditches called sloten. We have to do this, otherwise the land would be swamped in many places.

This is such a sloot, covered by duckweed, but it is the swans flower I want to show you. At least, that's what we call it, I don't know the latin name. When I grew up this flower was almost extinct, but due to better water pollution management it has reappeared. The yellow one is koolzaad, rapeseed, very prolific in my part of the country.

I walked towards the first crossroads and took a left, along the Ikkerseweg (love that name, as it has no meaning whatsoever) again next to a sloot absolutely framed by wild flowers.

You recognize the poppy, of course, and camomile. We pick the camomile for tea, but also to put into the dog basket, as folk lore has it that the strong smell keep fleas at bay. Sadly this does not really work 100%, so I still have to give my animals those flea drops.

The Ikkerseweg has a copse halfway, which is taken over by Giant Bear's Claw flowers(hogweed to you, I believe). I prefer our name, "berenklauw" as it scours your skin as a bear can. Huge blisters are the result.

Those monsters are taller than a tall man and they spread like a plague. Farmers try to get rid of them, but this copse is neglected.

It has a friendly gentle sister, Angelica, which also grows next to the sloot.

And the brown flower is zuring, wild sorrel.

At the end of the Ikkerseweg I took a left again, and passed a meadow with sheep and their lambs. They came running towards me, bleating, thinking I was the farmer with something tasty.

I don't know about you, but I like sheep. And now that I've read The Shepherd's Life I like them even more. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to clip/shear one, and I'll never forget the total trust it had in me with my power tool, and the feel of the somewhat greasy wool.

Another left onto the Stormweg took me back towards Nieuw-Helvoet. I passed some youngsters, who also took an interest in me and stood there staring and blowing.

Lol, got ya!

Hate those yellow earrings, stupid things!

And that was it. Back home again.

We call this vlasbloem, flax to you.

The nitty-gritty:

I walked 14.759 steps, which comes to approx. 20 km and is totally wrong - but I did a lot of walking earlier in the day when I tried out an English assignment (with a route in hand)in Brielle. 

I think this hike must have been approx. 6 km, as it took me an hour.

It was a sunny 23 degrees, with a wsw 18 km/h wind and a humidity of 54%. 

I wore the wrong clothes, they started chafing in all the wrong spots. Another lesson learnt.

Hope you've enjoyed hiking with me, until next time!

Viggo's Blog: Well, How About That? I'll Become a Daddy!

Hiya fans, Viggo here.
It's been a while; I've been busy, see. But today I want to share my HUGE news with you.

I will be a Dad soon!!!

Now, before you start texting me that I am deluded as neutered toms cannot beget kittens, hey, relax, cool it, I knooooooooow!

It is a very modern satellite family thing. In other words, the tiny brat is not mine biologically, but will be very much my son practically and philosophically.

Meet Bowie:

At the moment he is still with his mum, in the middle of nowhere, on a horse farm, but in a month or so he will be joining me in my domain. Isn't he cute?

Oh, I am so looking forward to teaching him all my tricks! Like how to get onto the roof next door, and laugh at the old lady who lives there, who thinks I do not use her garden as my toilet. And how to open every door in the house. And how to drink from Gina's bowl without her noticing. And how to wake up my woman at 5 a.m. without her swatting you.

I told my mates about him last night, whilst we were sheltering from the rain under the big white car with the blue letters on, and they were happy for me. We mostly get along, us cats, not like in my old neighborhood where I was in spats all the time with that ugly Maine Coon.

In fact, one of my friends, Nose, asked me if I could put his photo in this post as well. (I believe he's a bit lonely, he's always outside and I do mean always)

He's a nice guy though, Nose! He greets me and my dog Gina every day when we pass him, although we sometimes disturb him in his meditation. "Remember, Viggo, happiness is not a destination," he then says very quietly.

So, you all can look forward to my next posts, eh? Lots of cutesy kitten photos, and naughty kitten stories.

Do you know, I can't wait!

Tadah! Until next time.

Climate Change And The Wetlands

English folk claim to have a patent on moaning about the weather, but we Dutchies know a thing or two (or ten) about that subject as well!
If you don't know: we live in a Delta. Our country is criss-crossed by huge rivers, streaming down on us from France/Belgium and Austria/Zwitserland/Germany.

Most of the time those rivers are placid, simply flowing on towards the sea. But when it starts raining in those neighbouring countries, and starts raining heavily, we get a wave of river water streaming into our low-lying country that poses a threat.

Now, in the olden days, our ancestors knew enough to let those rivers flow over into water meadows. Sure, they let their cows and sheep graze there, but there usually was enough time to gather those animals onto higher ground. They even made earthen hillocks (called 'terpen') especially for those times even the water meadows couldn't hold all the surplus water and would build their farmsteads there. Smart people.

But nowadays our wetlands are overcrowded and our country is built up with endless suburbs and water meadows are deemed good overflow building land instead of overflow river water land. Not so smart...Our water engineers have been warning for years, decades even, but the local planning authorities seem to have a blind spot and suffer from sudden deafness when it comes to the warnings. Money speaks louder than words.

And thus we have a problem.
This week, due to the combination of a very high ground water level (the rivers) and extremely heavy rain, some parts of Brabant (a Southern province) had to deal with water rising more than 2.5 m above normal levels, and basements and parking garages and some neighbourhoods were flooded.

And suddenly the newspapers are full of the CC words. Climate Change is here! It's not around the corner, in the future somewhere, nope, it has arrived with its suitcases packed full of wet stuff and it has planted them firmly in our living room. Hi honey, I'm home!

Of course, us being hardy no-nonsense wetlanders, used to a bit of water, they immediately gave us some good news as well. Yes, more rain, more clouds, more mist, more storms, but also some goodies we have all been pining for: we will get more exotics as well. And higher temperatures. In fact, De Volkskrant newspaper told me that our climate has shifted up as far as Paris already. We have Parisian weather - oh la la, how chique! And in a couple of years we will have shifted as far South as Lyon, saving a huge portion of us a shitload of money and a lot of driving hours as we won't have to migrate to the Ardeche in Summer any longer.
Mind you, we will need that money we will have saved for buying mosquito repellant as the tiger mosquito is invading (able of carrying Zika virus, amongst other viruses) surfing on those higher temperatures. And oh horror, will the snakes come slithering in as well? Probably.

Today, our climate showed its sunny side. For the first time in weeks we had a completely dry day and could enjoy the outdoors without a wintercoat on. It was wonderful. I sang a chanson to celebrate.

Oh well. I'll invest in some good wellies and make certain I'll have the sandbags ready. Just in case.

The Hike 9: Verona (Northern Italy)

"Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
When I first saw the play, I thought this a weird question (I was 11). Obviously Juliet knew that Romeo was...Romeo, right?
But when, a couple of years later, I saw it again performed at a Shakespeare festival it hit me that there was a lot more to that question, and when I had to explain the play to my secondary school pupils, now years (it seems eons) later, Romeo and Juliet had grown to be one of my favorite Shakespeare tragedies. I made myself the promise I would visit Verona if I ever had the chance.

This is the balcony in Verona where Juliet purportedly stood during this conversation, and whether this is the actual house (as some historians claim) or whether Juliet never existed so this balcony is a clever tourist trap and fraud (as other historians equally claim, as it seems to have been added to the house in the 1930's according to Wikipedia), let me tell you that I could easily believe that the nurse was waiting in the room next to it, whilst Juliet cried "Anon, good nurse, anon!".
Mind you, so could dozens of others, milling around in the courtyard, or vying for a spot where they could touch Juliet's bronze titty.
So I aimed my camera high, in order to bypass all those overheated heads.

I ADORED Verona. In fact, I have vowed to go and live there after my retirement in 10 years time (or perhaps 15; by the time I've reached 67 and my government has by then added another 5 years to the retirement plan...growl!).
In order to take this photo I had to climb some very steep stairs, but they were worth every one of them!

We arrived in Verona after a comfortable express train ride from Firenze, and let me tell you, our first view and whiff of this city made me fall head over heel in love with it. It smelled of herbs, flowers, pines. And it was cheerfully busy but relaxed, and you could walk from the station into the city in 10 minutes along leafy streets.
We dumped our backpacks in the B&B and immediately headed into the Medeaval city centre, where this gate greeted us.

Verona is not really very large, and it has something lovely for you to see at every corner.

It boasts two Roman amphitheaters, of which this is the Arena on the Piazza Bra where the famous Operas are performed every Summer.

This is the other one, Teatro Romano, except you cannot see it, as it is hidden behing those ancient walls right in the center of this photo. 
We were unlucky: Teatro Romano was closed the entire month of May, for restoration. But we climbed the hill behind it and took a peek into it from above.

As all Tuscany cities Verona is built around a variety of piazzas. This one is the Piazza Erbe, which borders on the Piazza Dei Signori, also known locally as Piazza Dante because of its statue of the famous poet. At one time, all those buildings facing the piazza had been painted; now only some of the wall paintings remain. In order to get here, we walked along Via Mazzini, but took in Casa di Giulietta, and the closely by Casa di Romeo as well. Juliet's house is a museum, Romeo's you cannot enter as it is a private residence.

But I took a photo of a courtyard in Siena, which you will have to pretend looks like Romeo's palazzo (I did!):

The river Fiume Adige holds Verona in a motherly embrace, and we hiked both riverbank walks starting at the Ponte S. Francesco right up to the Ponte Risorgimento and it was lovely. Whilst taking in the gorgeous views we determined to walk the ramparts and hills the next day, and we did.

Verona was ruled for centuries by the same family, the della Scala family, and they resided in this castle on the river, the Castelvecchio, which houses a museum today.
The Duomo (of course Verona has one as well) is also right on the river, on the Piazza Duomo.

It has a fearsome warrior like Angel in front of it, although now I look back I must admit this could be Santa Anastasia...Sorry, I saw so many of them I get my Santas mixed up...

The next day, again with glorious weather, we started walking the ramparts starting from the same bridge again, the Ponte San Francesco (to the East of the station). Those ramparts have been built during the Austrian/Hungarian - Veneto wars, and they have been very well preserved. The park laid out on top of it is mostly green, don't expect many flower beds. We left them at the Ponte Catena and cut off by taking the Via Farina Uberti and Via dei Mille to pick up the other side of the ramparts at the corner of Viale D'Annunzio. Now we walked all the way up the hill to high above the Castel San Pietro (where the mighty Visconti family lived), where we also had the stunning view of Verona I have posted below my  paragraph about Juliet. But here is another one.

Above the Teatro Romano.

Those ramparts were so quiet you couldn't believe you were above a city teeming with tourists!

We ended the day in a great restaurant on the Piazza Erbe called Téta de Giulieta, or Juliet's tit, where I had a local speciality: Stracotto di Verona: polenta with donkey stew - 9 hours stewed, assured the charming owner. When my friend wanted to take a photo of me and my donkey, he quickly sat down next to me. The owner, not the donkey.

It was lovely food! The Spritz was nice too. Perhaps I should not have spurned to touch Giuilieta's right Téta after all...It's supposed to bring you luck in romantic love.

Right: the nitty-gritty:
We walked approx. 36 kilometers in two days in Verona. It has some steep steps, but on the whole it is great and easy to walk there.
We stayed at B&B SweetVerona, on the Via Amatore Sciesa, which is only 10 minutes walk from the city centre gate and does a great breakfast. It only has 3 rooms (with a balcony!), so book well in advance.
Another tip is  the organic restaurant "The Kitchen", on the Via Nicola Mazza 63A
which does inexpensive wonderful fresh food.
Verona has a tiny airport, only 2 gates, but many West-European airlines fly there (we flew with Transavia-KLM), which is only 10 minutes by taxi from the city centre and costs €15,00.
Although beloved by tour operators we never felt crowded by fellow tourists in Verona.
Beware that the temperatures (now a wonderful 23 degrees C in the first week of May) can be as high as 40 in high Summer!

I'll leave you with a photo I took that makes me smile: design ice cream.
Hope you've enjoyed walking alongside me on my Tuscany urban hikes, and see you soon.
The next The Hike will be about Northern-England. Arriverderci!

The Hike 8: Siena (Northern Italy)

Where we bussed from exhaust-pall covered Firenze to old Siena in a 'Rapido' bus that, in the end, took longer than the return 'Originale', in order to walk the Palio circuit.

Frankly, I thought it a blessed relief to be able to leave Firenze behind. Around 10 a.m. we boarded a creaking sky-blue local bus which would bring us to Siena - the rapido way.

In reality it took us almost half an hour at walking pace to even get out of the city. But after that the stunning landscapes of Tuscany kept me on the edge of my seat. It is leafy green, with vineyards and romantic villages, and at this time of year dotted with poppies.In short, just like the cliché Italy I liked so much when I watched "Letters to Juliet". Cliché or not, I loved it!

The weather had taken a turn for the better as well, finally the sun showed her face. We followed the other tourists into the old part of Siena, through one of the many gates. Siena is built up a steep hill, which makes hiking her streets a tiring affair for a flat  (and slightly too fat) delta dweller. But the gorgeous vistas around every corner urged me on and on.
Another difference with Firenze turned out to be the prices - Siena (her life-long rival) is slightly easier on your tourist purse, as long as you do not want to eat at the main square of Palio fame, the Piazza del Campo. 
If you want details about the Palio (the horse race) you'll have to look them up yourself - I respect the historical value but abhor the    race itself.

Siena is filled with images (mostly statues) of the she-wolf with Romulus and Remus. I looked them up, not understanding why this typically Rome symbol features so dominantly in Siena.Unfortunately I couldn't find an answer; so if you know it, be sure to let me know?
Obviously Siena has her very own duomo: the Duomo di Siena, from the 12th century. It is stunning in black, white and rose colored marble- and reminded me of a wedding cake.

This corner detail shows you how lavishly decorated it is. I always try to envisage the marble-dusty stonemasons carving these decorations. I wonder how many of them were killed by the Black Death in the 13th century (when they were still building this duomo).

We walked Siena tirelessly, I swear we walked each and every inner-city street and alley. And, cat lover that I am, I found myself a cat:

Or could it be an otter, I wonder? Anyway, I wish I could teleport it to my garden.

Right, the nitty-gritty:
We walked 19.356 steps, which comes to roughly 26 km. Siena streets are STEEP, so be warned if your knees are troubling you.
Temps. were a balmy 23 degrees, but it feels hotter in the narrow streets, so take plenty of water.
We stayed in Florence, so I cannot recommend B&Bs.
The rapid bus Firenze-Siena takes 1.45 hrs, lol, and so does the slow one.
The link to a nice little video about Siena:Siena

The Hike 7: Florence (Northern Italy)

Urban hiking has its own merits and disadvantages...And when you are a delta dweller, like myself, used to flat surfaces and gras/earth, walking across cobbles and uneven marble pavements taking in the many steps and hills is quite a challenge.

We took the slow train from Bologna to Florence, taking in lots of tunnels on the way. I had looked forward to seeing something of the landscape, but most of the time I just saw darkness.
Florence main station was large and crowded, and walking outside into the overcast old city centre it stayed that way, crowded.
The first thing that hit me was the smell: Firenze has a smog problem.
The second observation was that it also has a tourist problem. And here I was...adding to that with my small backpack, Aesics and raincoat.

We had booked a B&B well outside of the city centre for monetary reasons, which meant that we had to walk over 3 kms from the station to get there and the map wasn't very accurate.The difference in walking Bologna vs Firenze is that here instead of spacey relaxed arcades there are narrow pavements, but they are taken over by restaurants, market stalls and parked mopeds. Moreover, the road we had to take to the B&B happened to be the main bus route out of the inner city. Those buses were lined up like wagons on a train, honestly. Belching out exhaust fumes so toxic that I was gasping for breath.

So: did we turn on our heel and march back to the station? No. I was there,right, so I braved the traffic and determined I was going to see the Duomo even if it meant getting a headache (and it did).

Should you visit Florence? Hm. The Uffizi and the many gorgeous monuments mean that your eyes are feasted. But it does take some stamina to battle your way through the hordes. For example, I hardly saw anything of the lovely old shops lining the Ponte Vecchio, there simply were too many people like me. So we walked along the river instead and watched the built up bridge from the next bridge over.
This photo is one I took just before we threw ourselves into the crowd crossing the Ponte.

But even there on the other side, traffic and tourists everywhere.
Still, the palazzos and piazzas are charming, and the people we met in the trattorias were friendly, and the food was more than good.

As is my habit, I try to eat the local speciality where-ever I visit, and this is the famous Florentine T-Bone with roast potatoes.
And (no fibbing here!) it was the best T-Bone I have ever tasted. It melted in my mouth. I voiced my appreciation, and I don't know if that was what did it, but the waiters promptly forgot our existence and we had to wait for over an hour for the bill. I joked that they probably loved having two damp middle-aged Dutch hikers sitting at their prime position terrace table; we sat there for 3 1/2 hours! Still, never a dull moment. We watched the people milling on the piazza, very entertaining.

The next day we planned to visit Siena, so we walked back to the station and tried to find out where to buy our bus tickets and find the right bus stop. Again, this took stamina. Florentine professional travel people are very friendly but very vague at the same time. They either give you the wrong information, or they give you the right information using the wrong English words, anyway, to cut a very long story short, we spent more than 2 hours finding those tickets and bus stop. (Skip the next paragraph if you are not interested in our bus story)

If you plan to travel by local bus, take note: the local bus station is hidden away in a courtyard opposite the main line train station, and there is NO signposting there. There is a sign at the station telling you to go left to get your bus tickets, but when you do you find a Tobacconist which only sells bus tickets to The Mall (a huge outlet centre where enormous chrome and gleaming aubergine colored luxury buses full of Chinese tourists are herded towards).He then tells you to go 600 m. right instead. If you do, you end up at another Tobacconist selling tickets to...The Mall.
After 2 hours of searching (and by then swearing in Dutch and English simultaneously - always handy to be bi-lingual)we ended up desperately throwing ourselves at a suave local businessman who looked as if he knew his way around. He did. He even stopped talking into his mobile for three seconds.In the shady concrete courtyard which he pointed out (we were standing directly opposite it and we had passed it at least 10 times already) they sold bus tickets to every city around Firenze, including Siena.

Right: the nitty-gritty:
This day in Firenze we hiked 20.507 steps, which boils down to approx. 27 kms (of which at least 5 up & down along the same street searching for that bus terminal).
We stayed at B&B Casa Toselli, 3 km out of the old city centre, with clean comfortable rooms and bathrooms and a basic breakfast of weak cafe Americano, toast,cakes and jam. Added bonus: the next door neighbors keep a parrot in their garden, which keeps up a friendly Italian banter.
Temp. 18 to 20 degrees, overcast.
Road surfaces: uneven ancient marble and uneven modern cement.Most Firenze dog owners carry a pooper scooper, but beware all the same.
The link to an honest tourist board video about Florence: Firenze
We were advised not to drink the water from the fountains, but to buy bottled water instead, so we did.In most small shops a bottle will cost you 50 Eurocent.

The Hike 6: Bologna (Northern Italy)

As promised, a new installment of my hiking efforts, this time an urban one through the ancient city of Bologna in Northern Italy.

Hi, there, this is me in one of those typical Bologna streets.

From the first time (exactly a year ago this month) I set foot in Italy, I adored this country. So, planning a new hiking trip there was no hardship. I wanted to see more of Toscana (Tuscany), as that is the region I have read a lot about, and obviously because of Shakespeare's plays (English teacher forever, right?).

Nowadays planning your own trips is easy as pie through the Internet, so my friend Rina and I booked a cheap plane ticket from Eindhoven to Bologna, not quite knowing what to expect. I had read up on the city, and learnt it has a University and a music college, so a lot of students, and also learnt of its numerous arcades, but that was it.

So did I get a pleasant surprise or what?!

The above church on the Piazza Maggiore by the way is one of the oldest and the second largest church of Italy. I was told that it came too close to being larger than St. Peter in Rome, and the then Pope stopped all building works thereafter, so it is unfinished to this day.

I thought it was interesting, marble and beauty at ground level and then austere bricks on top.

The weather was atrocious though...11 degrees and raining off and on. Not quite what us delta dwellers had expected (last year May in Rome it was a blistering 29 degrees - also not what we had expected, but great).

So one of the first things I did when in Bologna was race into OVS, a wonderful store, and buy a sweatshirt. 

We walked those arcades with pleasure, as the busy motor traffic was banned to the middle of the road, which was often congested, but us pedestrians had it easy.

My reading had told me there is a 3.8 km long 666 arches arcade leading right up the side of a 300 m high hill, which takes you to the Basilica of St. Luca, and I definitely wanted to hike up that hill, for the view of the Medeaval city . But we were told by a nice waiter that it being the week of the Madonna di San Luca, there would be a procession going up that hill that day, and it would be terribly crowded and not advisable to try it.

We stuck to the inner city arcades instead.

This tower is the Torre dell'Arengo, and on both sides of the street you have a good example of the arcades.

The tower is one of the 24 remaining (out of an original 100!)high narrow towers of the city, built to defend the palazzos.

All in all we walked for hours and hours, soaking up the relaxed atmosphere (and rain...)and ending up in a wonderful restaurant run by twin ladies, where I had aubergine-filled tortellini with gorgonzola-cream sauce (yummy!)and the best-tasting beer ever (that could have something to do with the fact that I was extremely thirsty and tired at the time). And I love the Italian habit of presenting their guests with free bread, olive oil and salt and pepper as a starter! Our Dutch Italian restaurants do the same - but at a price...

Right: down to the nitty-gritty.

We stayed at B&B Alle Torri (see the view from our window above) with clean rooms and amenities, good breakfast and (for me very important) all the free espresso and free Wi-Fi I needed.

Walking distance from the B&B to the centre of town: 10 minutes. The only downside I can mention is that the students at the corner bar right underneath our window kept up their lively shouting until 3 am.

Number of steps walked in Bologna: 15.303, which amounts to approx. 20 kms.

Temp: a chilly rainy 11 degrees to 18 degrees when it was dry.

Travelled from Bologna to Florence by slow train (1 hr and 45 mins), costing €16.
Link to official Tourist Office video:Bologna