We were spoiled in February as we had beautiful spring weather with temperatures of around 20
ºC (68
ºF). Lucky for the kids who were out of school that week. Our 5 year old grandson Danté stayed with us 2 days. He is an outdoor child and loves to walk and ride his bike. Perfect for us as we love to walk. We chose a walking route especially for kids in our area,
"Slagmaatpad", near Bunnik. Our 3 1/2 year old granddaughter Jhené joined us. She is not used to walk a long distance but she did great after all.
We started at
Fort Vechten. It was part of the Netherlands waterline defense system. Entrance to the fort is over a bridge which also cuts through the fort wall.
At the end of the bridge, on top of the wall stands this tall man made from willow by visual artist Hester Pilz.
The fort surrounded by a moat.
Standing guard
There is also the Waterline Museum inside of Fort Vechten but we keep that for a next visit as the weather was too nice to be inside. They found some fun things to do.
Pulling Jhené up and down.
This is a replica of the Roman Tower. Too bad we couldn't step inside. It is closed to the public.
Then it was time to move on and walk away from the fort to stroll through meadows. During spring and summer we would have walked with the cows but they are still inside during winter time.
There are special steps to climb over the fence into the meadow.
Before we left this morning the first thing Jhené asked: are we going to picnic? Yes it's picnic time now!
Always fun to collect branches.
We didn't finish the route because of time limitation. We had to take Jhené back home at 5 pm. and I had promised them a pancake at the end of the walk. We walked back to the fort.
Now this is fun, trying to pick up Grandpa's hat with a stick.
Kids are curious and not afraid to enter this dark bunker, crawl through and.....
come out on the other side.
It was a fun afternoon and the kids loved it. Time to eat a pancake at
Theehuis Rhijnauwen...
and top it off with the playground outside.
I forgot to mention, they had homework. they had to collect and pick up things what they saw around them and put it in their little bag. Just forgot to make a picture of it but they found twigs, rocks, snailhouse, acorns, leaves , crocus, daisy, snowdrops etc.
