Contest Time Again!

Every Monday morning these days I wake up with a smile on my face because I know the new Ladies Of Hive Contest will be published the day before. And every week I hope it contains questions that invite me to think, take a journey through my mind and stimulate me to participate again. It's a great source of inspiration for me as a 'new' blogger to get my inspiration from this. I often still feel insecure to blog, partly because I still have the idea, "Who is waiting for my stories?". But this initiative makes it easier to get over that thought. So are you ready to read some ramblings of mine again?

This week I didn't have to think so long about the questions!

Tell me your most vivid dream. Illustrate with drawings, free images or photos from your private album. The most original gets my vote to win!

The most vivid dream of mine is not so difficult to answer. That is the dream I often had in my youth. In this dream, I was in different locations. One time in the polder, the other time in a city or in a discotheque, it could be anywhere. But always I was suddenly chased in the dream. It could then become some kind of nightmare you would think, but it wasn't. Because I could always suddenly fly away from the situation before it could get exciting. Sometimes I didn't fly away but I could suddenly drive away from the threat with a car. During the chase, I naturally felt the tension and was anxious for a while, but that usually changed into a wonderful feeling of freedom when I flew away from the situation or could drive away. The independent and free feeling that I got then always lingered when I woke up again. And that truly felt so good. I have seriously wished many times that it could be true. That I could really fly myself, especially from situations I didn't want to be in at that moment.

Unfortunately, the reality is a bit different. Unfortunately, I can't fly, but I can drive a car, and that still gives me a sense of freedom and independence.

For the second question:

Take me to your country and two of the best things to do there. Show me the best place to go, the best entertainment to experience and the best way to convince me that my next trip should be where you live. AND tell me the place you love so I can make another Hive Map. Originality is something I'm always looking for!

Of course, I live in the small Netherlands. The same country as @brittandjosie, so most of it will surely be familiar. But I still wanted to take the effort to name a number of places that I find interesting in the Netherlands.

Scheveningen

There are plenty of options here. It really depends on what you like. For example, I love the sea myself, so I would quickly recommend Scheveningen. You can enjoy the boulevard and a fairly large beach there. But for some people, Scheveningen has become too big, too touristy and they would rather visit smaller less touristy villages along our Dutch coastline. And let me just mention that right away. The entire coastline is beautiful to visit, each village/town has its own charm. And in general, the beaches are clean and covered with fine white sand so that you can also lie down to sunbathe, if the sun wants to shine, because that is not guaranteed in our Netherlands.

Volendam

If you prefer folklore, I would recommend Volendam, with its half-timbered houses and narrow alleys, it is a very nice city to visit. You also have the chance to meet people in traditional costume, and you have the opportunity to be photographed in the traditional costume, which is still worn in this region (on special occasions).

Heusden

If you like old fortified towns, then Heusden (near Den Bosch) is also definitely worth a visit, and you can of course add a visit to Den Bosch to that.

Appeltern

Come with me to a small town, located on the river De Maas. The town of Appeltern is best known for De Tuinen van Appeltern. Here you can admire model gardens on about 25 hectares of land. At these gardens there are maps of the garden with information about what can be found in this garden and who the landscape architect is who came up with this plan. The window frames are complete with all the greenery, groundwork, etc.

My partner and I love to stroll around here and enjoy all the beautiful things they create here, to get inspiration for our own garden. The plans to tackle our own garden are there, only the finances are still missing. Until we have that in place, we will continue to get inspired in Appeltern while enjoying the beauty they have to offer us there, and relaxing among all the greenery. Incidentally, you should not expect that you will end up in a large garden here, it is not. The whole is set up to show any size garden, so regardless of whether you have a large landscape garden or just a small city garden. Inspiration can be found here for every size garden, and that is what makes it so unique.

all information you need, or would like to know, can be found at their website; Appeltern Gardens

Zoo

And if you prefer to go to the zoo, you can do so in this small country. The Netherlands has an incredibly wide range of zoos for a small country.

You can think of the large well-known zoos such as the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, but Safari Park Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek is also known far beyond the Netherlands. Less known but no less special is Ecomare, a seal sanctuary. Sealife in Scheveningen, which of course can be combined with a visit to the beach and the boulevard.

But also small zoos such as ZieZoo in Volkel are definitely worth a visit. It doesn't always have to be big to be beautiful. Recently, it has often been heard that zoos are no longer of this time, but you can also look at that in a different way. Zoos today fulfill two important functions. They are important for children's development and a very good way for them to get to know different animals. But more importantly, zoos are working intensively to prevent the extinction of large numbers of endangered species by developing well-designed breeding programs. In this way, the endangered species can be saved from extinction and thus preserved for nature. A lot of people forget that important part. While it is just so important for the preservation of our entire ecosystem. Every animal that goes extinct disrupts the entire ecosystem!

Zoos that I am familiar with include:

• Ouwehands Zoo, in Rhenen near Utrecht
• Apenheul, in Apeldoorn
• Burgers Zoo in Arnhem
• Sealife, in Scheveningen
• Aqua Zoo in Leeuwarden
• Artis, in Amsterdam
• Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam
• Animal Kingdom, in Mierlo
• Dolphinarium in Harderwijk
• Zoo Gaia in Kerkrade
• Beekse Bergen Safari Park, in Hilvarenbeek
• Vogelpark Avifauna, in Alphen aan de Rijn
• ZooParc Overloon, in Overloon
• Care zoo Zie-Zoo, in Volkel
  
  

^{Tiger in Ouwehands Zoo Rhenen}

^{Kangaroo Zie-Zoo Volkel}

Service is usually pretty good

Some are small-scale, others are (by Dutch standards) spacious. Parking facilities are well taken care of at almost every zoo/animal park and food and drinks are also well taken care of at almost every park. You can also find a restaurant at the smaller animal parks where you can eat and drink.

Enjoying our small country

These are the first options I think of. Of course, I have shown before that for me personally, it does not always have to be so luxurious or far away from my home to still enjoy our small country. My partner and I regularly drive around the house to enjoy the many natural beauties along the river De Maas, and these small pieces also offer a lot of beautiful things to enjoy. So it's really just what you choose. What your idea of a holiday is like, and where do your interests lie? The fact that the Netherlands is such a flat country makes it quite unique compared to many other countries.

If you want to look up the hustle and bustle of cities like Amsterdam, for example, then you've come to the wrong person. You won't find me there anytime soon. I try to stay as far away from it as possible.

The Netherlands has even more to offer, such as the Wadden Islands. I regret to admit that I have never been here myself. It's on my wish list! Texel is particularly well known and loved among young people for going on holiday, but Schiermonnikoog is more interesting for nature lovers. Terschelling has a bit of both.

There are also a few islands in the province of Zeeland, namely: Schouwe-Duivenland, Noord-Beveland, Walcheren, Zuid-Beveland, Sint-Philipsland and Tholen.

Delta works

Delta Works in the province of Zeeland is definitely on my wish list to see for myself. I haven't gotten to this yet, but we definitely want to do this again. Partly because the Netherlands has always had to fight against the water. We don't want wet feet, and yet ... if the sea level continues to rise, will the Netherlands remain dry?

Image Tim Kraaijvanger via Pixabay

Not only the Delta Works are important to keep the Dutch's feet dry. We also need the Afsluitdijk for this. I've never seen this myself either. Actually strange, the Netherlands is not that big. But I have never seen many sights in my own country myself.

Thanks to the Ladies of Hive I am at least reminded of what I want to watch again. LOL

No Yellowstone or Niagara falls

But it is not just technical construction works. Our small country also has nature to offer. You can't expect parks like Yosemite or Yellowstone, nor do we have Niagara Falls, or even anything that could look like that. No, the Netherlands is not that big, and you cannot expect waterfalls in a flat country. But we do have other nature reserves to visit if that's your thing.

Natural parks

The Hoge Veluwe is probably the most famous park. The park covers about five percent of the Veluwe. It is part of the largest lowland nature reserve in Northwest Europe and consists of coniferous forest, deciduous forest, heathland, sand drifts, and farmland.

If this sounds good to you, please visit the website with information about a Visit to The Veluwe. Here you will find extensive information about the area. With of course also tourist tips and fun facts.

Maashorst

And for me, closer to home, the Maashorst nature reserve. This is approximately 2400 hectares in size and extends over a number of contiguous municipalities.

The highest point of the Maashorst is 23.1 meters on the Slabroekse Bergen. It consists of a few different landscape types: coniferous forest, four scattered heaths (together about 200 hectares in size), a few fens, modern agricultural area, old-fashioned farmland with fields, wet grasslands and hedges.

The idea of creating a contiguous nature reserve here originated in the 1960s, and arose from an acknowledgment of drought. In addition, they wanted to support the local flora and fauna and promote tourism.

Since March 2016, large grazers can also be found in this nature reserve. These are Tauros, Bison and Exmoor ponies.

^Wisents

^{Exmoor Pony}

Unfortunately, the Tauros have disappeared again since 2019 due to an incident where people were attacked by a few Tauros.

Heesch Bomenpark (Tree Park)

This is part of De Maashorst, and is where I walk(ed) a lot myself, and often sat on the terrace to look out over the water. Around the pond and the surrounding woods, I have set many footsteps with Gentle. We loved walking around here, enjoying the dogs (which are allowed to run off leash here), and nature.

I could write much more about this area and our country, but much better to plan your visit here yourself and see it with your own eyes.

It's definitely worth it!