Tag: travel

A day hike at Paleis het Loo, the Netherlands

Our travel plans have changed majorly due to Covid this year. So instead of venturing out to the mountains for a trip we decided to stay a bit closer to home. To be precise we decided to visit the beautiful Veluwe again. In my opinion one of the most beautiful areas of the Netherlands. I have been here multiple times in the past couple of years, since it is an easy weekend getaway.

With a longer stay it was time to explore some new places. One of them was Paleis het Loo. At the moment the national museum at the palace is closed due to maintenance. It is scheduled to reopen in 2021. So instead of visiting the palace we did a day hike around the palaces gardens which measure 650 hectare.

At the palace you have two parking lots. I opted for the one further away from the main area, due to the Covid 19 restrictions and the palace being closed. Coming out of the direction of Apeldoorn you just drive past the main entrance and a couple of hundred meters down the road you will pass another small sign indicating that you can enter the gardens. This is Parking lot Bosloo.

The entrance fee to the garden is 2 euros per person. Which you can pay at the entrance of the park at the parking lot. There is a cash and a card option at the machine. There is no parking fee.

One of the first things I noticed while entering the gardens was the differsity of the trees and the plants growing there. There are so many varieties I had never seen in the Netherlands before.


You will also find heather along the trail. Which at the end of July already started to bloom. I loved those purple flowers, unfortunately they only bloom for such a short time.
Besides heather you will also find blue berries along the trail, as well as many other plants.

Ourneverendingwanderlust Paleis het Loo 3We decided to hike the red route, which is a 7 kilometer long trail that will lead you away from the palace. You will find multiple trails in the gardens. Varying in length from 2 kilometers to 14 kilometers, as well as wheelchair accessible routes. So there should be a trail for everyone.

The red route is an easy hike with some rolling hills. It almost feels like you aren’t even in the Netherlands at all. Since the Netherlands are normally really flat. It adds to the feel of being on vacation. Even though you are close to home.

The route is well marked with wooden posts painted with the color of your route. Along bends they also placed multiple posts to make sure you won’t end up on another trail.

Our neverending wanderlust Paleis het Loo-1700

Along the trail you can take a little detour to the wildlife lookout. Where I spotted some wild boars in the middle of the day, as well as a red deer. Which I had never encountered before. It made for a great memory of this trip.

After finishing this trail you can also hike to the palace from this parking lot. Here you will find a map with all the hiking trails in the park.

I definitly want to go back to hike some other trails here.

Have you ever visited Paleis het Loo in the Netherlands?
If yes, did you hike in the gardens?

Our neverending wanderlust Day Hike at Paleis het Loo

 

Castle Eltz and Geierlay

I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything in so long. We have been extremely busy with work, our home and traveling as much as possible.

So last fall has been all about new adventures. These adventures came in the form of day trips. One of the day trips I took was to Castle Eltz. The castle has been famous due to instagram. I am sure you have seen one of the many pictures of Castle Eltz, while scrolling through your feed.

our neverending wanderlust eltz castle-1So on the last Friday of October I took a daytrip to Castle Eltz with one of my friends. For me it was a very long drive, but it was defenitly worth it. We had planned this trip months in advance, but we were lucky that it wasn’t raining.

So we parked our car at the parking at the top, where you have to pay two euros. Yes, even before opening hours. From there you can either take the pendle bus down or hike down. It is only a short hike, about 1 kilometer. So we hiked down where the pendle bus goes down. Half way down you will find a platform with a birds eye view over Castle Eltz.

our neverending wanderlust eltz castle-5164When you get to the castle it is open for visits. It costs 10 euros for an adult to get in. You will also find a restaurant in Castle Eltz.

We decided to not go in, but we wandered around the castle grounds. All the way down to the river. There are numerous hiking trails passing along the castle and you can even hike from here to Castle Pyrmont.

After wandering around for a while we took the foot path through the forest back to the car. From the footh path you will also find some amazing views over the Castle.

After our visit to Castle Eltz we decided we wanted to see one of the other big tourist attractions around here, which is the bridge at Geierlay. It is one of the longest suspencion bridges in Europe. It is 360 meters long and 100 meters high.

Since it is such a big attraction you will find multiple parking lots in the town of Morsdorf. Don’t forget to bring cash though, cause you can’t pay with a card. It is about a half an hour hike to the bridge depending on where you park your car. We did a circular route which took us about an hour.

When we were there it was quite busy, which meant you had to pass people on the bridge. It was also quite windy, so a lot of movement of the bridge. But here the fall colors were just amazing. It was an amazing experience to see and hike the Geierlay suspension bridge.

Have you ever visited Castle Eltz or the Geierlay bridge?

My thoughts on travel

Over the last few years we haven’t gone on any long distance trips. And you know what? That is okay too. You don’t always have to fly halfway across the world to see the most incredible sights. There are so many incredible sights in our own backyard, as long as we are willing to see those places.

The last two years, we have traveled through Europe, mainly because it wouldn’t be a good idea to fly halfway across the world after a one week hospital stay in Sweden in 2015 and a lot of hospital visits for the past two and a half years.

For the last couple of months we have been talking about taking our first long haul flight again. There are some destinations we can’t go due to vaccinations. Some vaccinations can be dangerous in combination with certain medicine, so always make sure to check with your doctor before getting any vacinations.

But after traveling in Europe for the past two years I realised we have everything we could want at a driving distance. There is France and Spain with beaches and mountains. Luxemburg and Germany with forests and all those other beautiful countries.

And in 2016 I completly fell in love with Italy, I mean the food is heaven and they have everything you need. They have beaches, old cities and mountains. It is such a versatile country. I can’t wait to go back there.

 


My other love in Europe is Basque Country. Which isn’t crowded with tourists yet and has so many outdoor options. I hope it won’t get overflown with tourist due to Game of Thrones, which has some film locations there, check out my blog about one of the film locations here Game of Thrones series part 1. If I would move within Europe, I am pretty sure it would be to Basque Country. I mean the food, the people and the area are all just amazing.

 


I am sure we will make long distance trips again in the near future, but we certainly won’t forget what we already have close to home. If you want to travel on a budget it is always a good option to stay closer to home.

Do you always fly halfway across the world or do you combine it with traveling closer to home?