Our ups and downs with South Limburg

(not a rant, more a musing) In the largely rural south of the Dutch province of Limburg near Maastricht, centuries-old half-timbered buildings, former watermills, castles, and massive stone farmhouses nestle among the rolling hills. Charming “hollow ways” – roads that began in Roman times as cart tracks and have sunk over time, sometimes by a … Read more

N70, where have you been all my life?

The N70: It turns out that they’ve been hiding the hills from us. When the Council of Europe declared the year 1970 as a year for nature conservation, the city of Nijmegen took this idea and ran with it. They devised a walking path that would get people, even people less familiar with nature, to … Read more

Après nous le déluge

We’ve both been thinking about this expression since our last walking trip in South Limburg. A few days after we got home, torrential rain brought death and destruction to parts of Limburg, Belgium and Germany. Now that the International Panel on Climate Change has released its report, it occurs to us that this sentiment may … Read more

Splendor in the Grass

Splendor in the Grass – Koppelsteede (Please note: as of January 2021, Koppelsteede is closed to the public. Check their website if you’re planning to go.) On a previous walk this summer along the old Roman border, while about to cross the freeway on our way to get gin, we found ourselves walking past what … Read more

The monumental trees of Arnhem: A BIRCH TOO FAR

A BIRCH TOO FAR One of the pleasures of planning walks in the early Boots and Bowtie days using the old (read “paper”) topographic maps was spotting the symbol which according to the map legend indicated a “remarkable tree”. This would mean a tree that conspicuously differs from the ones around it, or is in … Read more

Point to Point walking

Belgium is once again leading the way in introducing a brilliant new idea: point-to-point walking. They’ve had bike knooppunten for years, and recently began to make routes for walkers, based on numbered signs, an online map, and the possibility of devising and printing your own walk. Here in the Netherlands we’re busy catching up, and … Read more

Utrecht’s fabulous trees

One of the unintended benefits of staying closer to home since March of this year (2020) has been a better acquaintance with Utrecht’s many trees. In all frankness, we didn’t recognize many different species, until having read Peter Wohlleben’s “The hidden life of trees”, and afterwards Richard Powers’ Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Overstory”. We became curious … Read more

Walk: Hollandsche Rading to Baarn

Lage Vuursche – Pancakes and the Bunnyberg The Food We’ve often seen articles about how dining out in the Netherlands has improved over the years. These articles frequently mention our great Michelin three-star chef, Jonnie Boer, of De Librije in Zwolle and its sister restaurant, Librije’s zuster. In one interview, he charmingly let slip that … Read more

Cattle and horses and deer….oh dear!

  When the first warm day was forecast in April after months of virtually unbroken unseasonable cold, Boots and Bowtie decided to get out and visit a place we’d heard about for a long time – the Oostvaardersplassen reserve. This 5600-hectare reserve in the newly-built province (yep, we’re in Holland) of Flevoland was slated to … Read more