Two years ago, I was sharing a beer with my Aikido teacher. I remember asking him if he knew about a nice countryside place for a 2-3 day break. 

At the time, I really needed to get away from my students and the music studio, not because I wasn’t enjoying my work life, on the contrary I love it, but just to rest, reset a little and take a little perspective on things. You know what I mean...

Knowing me quite well, he was surprised I didn’t know about the Hoge Veluwe.
The Hoge Veluwe is a 55 square km national Park at the heart of the Netherlands. 

It all began in 1909 when a couple, Anton Kroller and Helen Kroller-Muller, bought some land. The first was a nature geek and the other was an art collector. They started populating the park with wildlife and artwork, both architectural and pictural, with an amazing art museum complex at the center of the park.

Today, the park is open to the public and hundreds of bicycles are available for free use at the entrance and at various places in the park.

So I followed my Aikido’s master advice, packed a tent, some food, my ukulele and a DSLR camera, jumped in the car for a 90 minute drive, and went to explore the park for a couple of days. 

Stunning! I was overwhelmed by the beauty and diversity of the place while cycling on one of the park's white bikes. I couldn’t believe I was in Holland! And was so glad I had my DSLR camera with me.

Sometimes, I truly felt like cycling through golden savannas of Africa!

After the Savanna, in front of me, opened a kind of small sand desert...

After a few km cycling through a wonderful desolation, I entered a beautiful  forest with wild life.

Followed by a more organized, but not less beautiful,  garden at the North of the park. It might be difficult to see on the picture below, but the  ground had so many nuances between purple and green. It was an amazing sight

After that, I cycled back towards the center of the park, and after quite a wild forest ride, reached the Kroller Muller museum. There, I enjoyed the huge collection of contemporary art, and ended up on the green grass of the museum park for a restful nap surrounded by weird, yet beautiful sculptures. Surreal.

What a wonderful day this was! 

Since then, I know I have this beautiful escape where I can recharge my vitality. Knowing that this place exists puts me at peace when my life becomes a little too hectic: I know the paradise of the hiker is just a 90 minutes drive away. 

I could also call this park the paradise of the longboarder ;-). Today, I do not even need to pick up one of the bikes: Surfing the park tracks on a longboard is also soooo cool! I already posted a video of my latest visit to the Veluwe in my introduction post, I was expressing then my interest in LongBoarding. I think it’s worth putting it again in the context of this post: Look at the sceneries...

I know quite a few tips about the park now, so if many of you are interested to know more, I will make a post with more practical information so that you can enjoy it at the fullest! 

You can also find additional info on the official page of the park: https://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/

Credits:
The map was made using snapshots of Googlemaps
The little frieze is based on a pattern found on Pixabay.com
All other pictures were taken by me

Hi,
I’m @muphy,
and my life revolves around music production, teaching sciences, and discovery through travel.
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