36.83 km
Total distance on the trip 433.44
2:16:40 hrs moving time
188m elevation
Total elevation 913
Weather low of 13, high of 18. Wind 27km/h Southerly (but we did not need this today as we were spending the day in the park - or so we thought)
We woke to a cool and sunny morning, ate our breakfast and headed to de Hoge Veluwe which is a huge (55 km2) national park in the centre of the Netherlands. It had once been a private park and residence for relaxation and hunting by the owners Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller, but like so many other rich dutch, the owners handed over the park, gallery and mansion to the Dutch government when they suffered financial hardship in the 1930's and could not afford the upkeep.
Near the entrance to the park this recumbent was parked, it looked like it was built for speed.
The plan was to visit the hunting lodge, visit the museum, then go for a long ride around the park as it did not close until 10pm. Plenty of time and light to enjoy the day.
Once we had entered the park we found the infamous "white bikes" these are available for free to use in the park. There hundreds of them, children and adult sizes. Every adult bike had a child seat on the back, so families would not miss out on a bike if they had small children. We started to explore, we did have an appointment to tour the mansion at midday, so we could not head too far away.
We rode through a forest with really tall pine trees, then all of a sudden, the trees ended and the landscape became one of sand and sand dunes. It was quite incredible how sudden the change was, and how barren and massive the dune section was. This barren area is termed a terminal moraine and was formed in the ice age and indicates the edge of where a glacier once was.
As we rode through the park, there were statues and beautiful flowers everywhere.
The time was right for us to head to the Jachthuis Sint Hubertus (St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge) which was the country residence of the couple. It was designed by the Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. We spent a bit of time walking around the house and looking at the details.
You can only enter the building with a guided tour, and the tour was in Dutch, however, I was able to secure an audio guide which helped with descriptions of the house. It was beautiful, and we only got to see the downstairs area.
Everything had been so thought out and planned in its design. The architect was also responsible for the interior decoration. It really was something.
The stained glass windows above the entrance were gorgeous, and rivalled any church windows. The attention to detail throughout the house was astounding. The very large dining room, the carpet was made to fit into the floor - the tiles fit around the carpet so it is not above the tiles.
These rooms were on either end of the house - the red ceiling room (the lady's sitting room) was to reflect the sunset light into the house, the green (the library and smoking room, or man's den) the morning light.
Visiting with Mr Jaques (Oswald Wenckebach) at the entrance to the Kröller-Müller Museum and art Gallery. I am so glad we decided to dedicate a whole day to the park, the house and the museum. There is so much to see here.
Some of the sculptures that were on display indoors - it was exciting to see the works of artists I had learned about at school ...Rodin (bottom left), Umberto Boccioni, the bronze in the centre, Horse and Rider (Marino Marini), and Alberto Giacometti, whom we had learned about in Switzerland in 2017.
After exhausting ourselves in the sculpture garden, we left and decided to go ride our bikes around the park. For once we did not check the weather forecast which had become so important to our day.
Our plan was to set out, heading south to do a circumference of the park in a leisurely manner.
The landscape changed so vastly and so quickly the further we went. Wayne had a bit of a mechanical on the way.
Then as we were as far away from any shelter we could see the rain heading right toward us. We donned our rain jackets, turned around and sprinted back toward shelter, but we were not fast enough. The rain absolutely soaked us. We passed so many people who had gone out on a ride and were also caught unprepared. By the time we got back to the museum, we were soaked to the skin and freezing as the temperature had dropped to about 13 degrees, then add in the windchill from our riding.
We got to Otterlo, the nearest town and the rain stopped, the sun came out. We were absolutely soaked. We stopped at the supermarket to buy some newspaper so we could dry our shoes out and headed back to where we were staying.
The evening stayed pretty cool, and the glamping tent's heater was not functional, so we piled on all our dry layers, ordered takeaway ate dinner, and only warmed up when we went to bed.
Otherwise it was a fantastic day.
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