Photography

A weekend hiking at Voorne-Putten

Are you looking for a hiking destination within The Netherlands? Look no further, I have found you the perfect destination for a weekend get away in The Netherlands.

Let me introduce you to the beautiful area Voorne-Putten. With 375 kilometers of hiking trails, an amazing place to go hiking for the weekend.

Voorne-Putten is situated just south of Rotterdam, in the province of Zuid Holland. Which makes it an ideal place for a weekend getaway. It is rural and has the only south facing beach in The Netherlands, in Rockanje. Add to that all the picturesque villages and you have a perfect setting for fall.

Where to stay?

We stayed in the beautiful old town of the city Hellevoetsluis at Boutique hotel de Oude Veste. A beautiful small scale hotel housed in the building of the old marine school. The building was build in 1878. And you will only find 7 rooms, all in their own beautiful style. We stayed in room 6, which has a beautiful view of the harbor of Hellevoetsluis and the windmill. Which was first located at ‘Droogdok Jan Blanken’ and was later moved to it’s current location.

The hotel is within walking distance of all the sights of Hellevoetsluis, so you won’t need your car while staying here.

What to see?

In Hellevoetsluis you will find the old defense lines. ‘Stichting Verdedigingswerken’ organizes tours along the defense lines from April until the beginning of October. We were fortunate to catch one of the last tours of the season. As they are not allowed to enter the casemates during the winter months, due to bats.

I can highly recommend taking a tour of the defense line in Hellevoetsluis, as it comes with an incredible story about the history of the beautiful city of Hellevoetsluis.

After your tour you can take a hike through the city of Hellevoetsluis, there are different routes possible. You can make your own route with the “knooppunten” which are well marked along the city.

If you stay within the city, I can highly recommend going for a sunrise hike, which is what we did. As the city is still quiet and the boats reflect beautiful in the water.

Where to go hiking?
But of course we came here to go hiking, as Voorne Putten counts 375 kilometer of hiking trails. So let me take you along on the hike “Duinen & Valleien” which starts in the dunes of Rockanje.

We parked our car at the info centre at Tenellaplas, in Rockanje. Where you can easily start the hike, as the first marker is right in front of the visitor centre.

Between the ‘knooppunten’ you will follow the red arrow, which will point you in the right direction to the next ‘knooppunt’.

It is an amazing route which totals 13 kilometers, along the beautiful forest and dunes of the island Voorne Putten.

The route is almost entirely unpaved and it almost doesn’t feel like you are in The Netherlands at all. As you just keep walking within nature.

The trail starts in the beautiful forests, and through the dunes, back into the forest. There is only a small part of the trail that will take you along a bicycle path, but that is only about 1k of the total trail.

There are numerous benches along the trail, so just bring your lunch along and find a beautiful spot for a picknick. While you enjoy the peacefulness of this area.

After returning to the visitor centre, don’t forget to check it out. It has some beautiful displays with information of this beautiful area. As well as a little shop. You can also buy hiking routes for children here, called the ‘knapzak’ route.

There is also a restaurant situated next to the parking lot, for your after hike drinks.

Ravense Hout, Hellevoetsluis

If you are looking for a shorter hike, you will want to visit the forest called Ravense Hout, just outside of the city. A beautiful forests, where dogs are allowed to roam free. And where you will find some amazing lanes and bridges inside the forest. We ended our weekend here with a short hike of 3k. Along the beautiful lanes and water ways that are numerous in this forest.

Where to eat?

Last, but not least, where to eat while visiting Voorne-Putten? I mean, who doesn’t get hungry from all that hiking? So a good and hearty meal will go along way.

We had dinner at restaurant de Beeren in Heenvliet, a beautiful restaurant, in an even more beautiful town. So don’t forget to head over into town after having dinner.

Have you ever visited the island of Voorne-Putten? Let me know in the comments or if you are planning on visiting the island in the future.

What is in my camera bag?

As an amateur photographer I always wonder what is in someone elses camera bag. So I decided to share what is in my camera bag.

Nikon D7200

Last year I traded up my camera from a Nikon D40 to a Nikon D7200. A descission I haven’t regretted yet.

Lenses

I bought my camera in a kit with a lense, an 18-140mm, which I love when I travel, because it gives me the flexibility of switching between a landscape an a zoom lens in a second. A couple of months after this lens I also bought a 50 mm lens. Which I love for the small size and the lofh, which makes it an ideal lens to carry around.

Accessories

I also carry around a tripod, a couple of filters and always an extra battery. I got the extra battery as soon as I went out to shoot and the sunset was amazing, but I left my battery in my charger at home. So the day after I went and bought an extra battery.

I also carry two SD cards with me, because you never know.

What is in your camera bag?

The month of January

The other day I came up with this idea to do a review of the month, so you can have a little sneak peek in our live while we are not out travelling. We both have a day job, so we try to get out during the weekend as much as possible. This month has been full with all sort of activities. Let me tell you all about them.

Vakantiebeurs Utrecht

Every year we go to the ‘Vakantiebeurs’ in Utrecht, which is the biggest travel fair in The Netherlands. So of course this January we went there again and came home with lots of inspiration. If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen some of my pictures of the fair in my instastories.

We looked into trips to Japan and some destinations closer to home, like the North Coast of Spain and the Dolomites in Italy. Either one will probably be our destination for our spring roadtrip.

There is also a hall with lots of camping gear and this year there was a stand with rooftop tents, which we added to our list of gear we would love to purchase in the future.

Hiking

Ofcourse we also went hiking, this time we ventured to the Kloosterbos in Belgium, where we did just a small hike in the late afternoon and we were so lucky to come across 4 deer on our hike! I can barely believe it myself, since I had never seen a deer in this area before.

Our neverending Wanderlust Kloosterbos.-6309

Our neverending Wanderlust Kloosterbos.-6309-2

We also stayed close to home for our walks with Milow where we ventured into the forest as much as possible.

Photography

Ofcourse I can’t go an entire month without going out just to photograph, so I went into town to do some night time photography.

Bruges
The last weekend of January Andy and I headed out to Bruges with one of my friends. We visited the brewery the Halve Maan. I had never visited the brewery before, but ofcourse I did have some Brugse Zot before, which is one of the house brands of the brewery. Did you know that they transport the beer underneath the streets of Bruges? I will tell you all about Bruges in another blog.

As you can tell we had a busy, but fun month of January. Along with a lot of trips and fun activities we also had a lot of appointments for our new home, which they hopefully start building in June. Keeping our fingers crossed for that.

So what did you do this month? And would you like me to continue posting a review of our month?

Game of Thrones series part 1

Have you ever watched the Game of Thrones? We have watched all seasons up to season 6, we are waiting for season 7 to get out on DVD. Besides the DVD I have read all the books and I am still waiting on the next one in the series.

While we were in Basque Country we had the opportunity to visit two sights that will make their appearance in the Game of Thrones season 7.

Today I will share one of these sights with you.

The beach of Itzurun in Zumaia, Spain. The campsite we stayed at was on a 10 minute drive from Zumaia. We actually had no clue this beach featured in the Game of Thrones until the last week of our stay.

We were grocery shopping in Zumaia and Andy stayed outside at the grocery store, because we already had bought some veggies at a small store in town.

While he was waiting on me a local started to talk to him. When I came out of the store the local was showing him a Youtube video of Zumaia and the Geoparc and telling us he had seen Kaleeshi at the beach in Zumaia. At first I thought he was playing us, so we looked it up and found out that they did shoot some scenes right there.

Besides the Game of Thrones Zumaia lays within the Geoparc, which is famous for it Flysch. The flysch are only visible when the tide is low. On our first day here we hiked from the campsite to Zumaia and we where lucky to witness the Flysch in their full glory, but more on that hike in another blog post. I can tell you it was one of the most beautiful hikes we have done until now.

Zumaia is one of the places I fell in love with in 2017, I seriously could pack up my bags and just move here. There are lots of hiking trails, an amazing beach and the mountains in your backyard. What else does one need?

I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Have you ever visited a film location?

A day in Bilbao

I have still so much to tell you about our time in Basque Country. So today I will tell you more about our day trip to Bilbao. Since we were so close by, we decided we couldn’t pass on visiting this city.

We hadn’t planned anything on this trip, so visiting Bilbao wasn’t planned either. We were lucky to come across a lady at the campsite which had visited Bilbao that week and she was so kind to borrow us her guidebook to the city.

So the day before we looked into what the sights where in Bilbao and we asked some tips from the owners of the campsite.

One of the tips they gave us was not to take the train there, because it would take very long, but to drive up and park at the Bilbao Expedition Centre on the outskirts of the city. There is a metro station right there and when you take the metro into the city and you return to the parking lot, which is huge by the way, you insert your parking ticket along with your metro ticket in the meter and you will park an entire day for a couple of cents!

We bought metro tickets to Casco Viejo, Old Town. In Casco Viejo we started our walk around the city. First we strolled along the streets of Casco Viejo, where you will find lots of little restaurants and shops.

We continued our walk past the river towards the Guggenheim Museum, which is one of the 3 Guggenheim Museums around the world.

Bilbao is also famous for it’s bridges, which you will pass on your way to the Guggenheim.

We didn’t visit the Guggenheim museum itself, but we did wander around the outside of the building. Where you will find the famous Maman from Bourgeois. Maman is a 9 meter high sculpture of a spider. You can stand underneath the spider, since it is situated on the sidewalk in front of the museum.

Along with the art you will find on the outside of the building, the building itself is also a piece of art, because the Guggenheim is an incredible piece of architecture.

If you love to read, Dan Browns new book, Origin, takes place inside the Guggenheim in Bilbao.

After the Guggenheim we continued our walk through Bilbao Centro, which is the new area of Bilbao, where you will find lots of shops and restaurants.

As always there comes an end to the day, so we took the metro back to the parking lot. There are a lot of metro stations situated thorough Bilbao.

We liked Bilbao, but unlike Donostia/San Sebastian we didn’t fall in love with the city. Have you ever been to Bilbao?

2017 a review

Since 2017 has almost come to an end, I decided it was time to look back on our year. It has been a crazy year, that is for sure, but an amazing one.

2017 was the year that we sold our house and bought a piece of land to build our own home.

It has also been the year were we had to cut back on travel due to work, but even though we had to cut back on travel we did get out and travel as much as we possibly could. Even if that meant staying closer to home.

It was also the year that I decided to become a tourist in my own country, The Netherlands, because there are so many places that I had never been and still haven´t been.

It was the year we fell in love with the Basque coast and in particular with the beautiful city of Zumaia.

So let me tell you about our top 5 moments of 2017.

1. Selling our house
We listed our house for sale in 2016 and we finally sold it at the beginning of 2017. For us it was a huge step, because it was our first home as a couple. We decided to take a leap and buy a piece of land, so we could realise our dream of building our own home.

2. A two week roadtrip to the Basque coast
This year we went on a two week camping trip to the Basque coast. We were planning on moving around, but we fell in love with the area near Ixtaspe so much that we decided to stay there for our entire vacation. It was a choice I haven’t regretted. We enjoyed all the delicious food, went on some of the most incredible hikes, and we just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful views.

3. A weekend get away to the Speulderbos

The last weekend of September we took a much needed trip to the beautiful Speulderbos in The Netherlands. Where I participated in a photography workshop about forest photography. The first day we were there we did a hike in the Speulderbos and the second day I had my photography workshop. We got so lucky this weekend, because the weather was so incredibly beautiful for the time of the year. We had sunshine, fog and no rain at all.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-2054

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1850

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-2003

4. A day trip to Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Gris Nez in France
In November I went on a day trip to the Cap in France to photograph. The weather was incredible and the views and the food were amazing. I had never been here, even though it is only a two hour drive from where I live. Hence the fact I need to travel more in my own back yard.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Cap Blanc Nez-4095

Ourneverendingwanderlust Cap Griz Nez-4329

Ourneverendingwanderlust Cap Blanc Nez-4183

5. All the trips to the forest
In 2016 I started with photography classes. I have loved to photograph ever since I was a child, but due to study and work I never had the time to take photography classes. After I had finished college in 2015 I decided in 2016 to finally take those photography classes I had always wanted to take.

Since I love to be outdoors and I love to go to the forest, I found my love for forest photography in 2017. Which leaded to a lot of day trips to the forest in 2017 and even a photography workshop. Pretty much all my spare mornings were spend in the forest and I loved every minute of it. Most of the time I will head out by myself, because I am seriously no fun to go with when I photograph, but I love to be out there by myself, just taking in all the beautiful things the world has to offer.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Kloosterbos-5626

Ourneverendingwanderlust Kloosterbos-5573

I hope 2018 will be an equally amazing year as 2017. It will also be a crazy year, since we will start building our home. I hope we get to travel as much as possible, but we already have a three week roadtrip planned. So I can´t wait for all the beautiful things 2018 will bring us.

I hope your year has been as amazing as ours and I wish you a happy new year!

The Speulderbos

Like I told you a while ago we spend the last weekend of september on the Veluwe. I had signed up for a photography workshop that Sunday and since it started at 7 in the morning we decided to make it a weekend getaway.

We drove up to Garderen on Friday night after work. We stayed at the Bilderberg hotel Speulderbos, where we enjoyed the comforts of a hotel with the forest starting right at the front door.

We were extremely lucky with the weather that weekend, because we had fog in the morning, both on Saturday and Sunday, and a beautiful sunny afternoon. As a photographer I prefer to have some fog when I shoot in the forest.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1966

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1999

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1934

The first day we didn’t get up super early, but we started the day a bit more relaxed with a breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we drove up to Drie where we parked the car and hiked a 10km route through the Speulderbos.

We hiked through old forests and through fields of heather and we were lucky to run into the sepherd and his herd. We watched the sheep graze for a while.

The Speulderbos truly is a magical forest, I had never seen anything like it in The Netherlands.

Because we went in September it was also a great time to go and look for fungi, which is what we did during our hike. There are a lot of different varieties to be found in the Speulderbos and we were lucky to spot quite a few.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1895

After our hike we returned to the parking lot at Boshuis Drie. We wanted to grab some lunch here, but unfortunately there was no free table left. If you want to have lunch here after your hike, make sure to make some reservations beforehand.

We drove back to the hotel to have a small lunch and just relax at the front lawn in the sun before we had dinner.

Have you ever visited the magical Speulderbos?

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1959

Ourneverendingwanderlust Speulderbos-1979