An Autumnal Walk in Mariënborn, Netherlands

As autumn was due to set in, Hayley and I headed to the countryside Mariënborn, a village near Arnhem with a local hiking group. What better way to enjoy the autumn than going out for a weekend stroll in the countryside. Indeed, we had a lot fun.

 

Strolling In the Woodlands

Hiking in the Netherlands is like walking through a park. Unless you are in South Limburg, it is generally super flat. That said, it was nice to get out stretch our legs in the woods and observed some of the wildlife.

Ahh… peace and quiet

Interesting grassland in the middle of the woods

A heron stood by the lake as he looked for a catch.

Interesting bit of the moorland along the route

Finally a hill! It was probably 2 meters above the sea level! xD

 

Mushrooms, Paddestoels and Gnomes

Walking through the forest, it was not difficult to spot different types of fungi. Many of them look very beautiful and probably poisonous at the same time. In fact, there were a lot of death cap around the ground of the forest!

Not sure what kind of fungi they are, but they do look very nice

More interesting fungi in the woods

When we walked along the forest, it was easy to spot the red and white toadstools (or paddelstoels in Dutch) everywhere. Many of them were half eaten by the animals or had their stem broken in half. The Dutch children song, Op Een Grote Paddestoel, has it that a (fat) gnome sits on a large red and white paddestoel and felt over face flat. Perhaps the gnome ate some of these magic mushrooms, got high, acted stupidly and felt off from it?

Paddestoels in the forest

Did the deer eat those? Or was it the gnome?

 

War Cemetery & Operation Market Garden

An interesting place that we came across was the Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery. This was a Second World War cemetery to remember those whose paid their ultimate price during Operation Market Garden. This was the largest airborne and land operation seen in the World War II in which it drove the German to another side of the river.

Main entrance of the war cemetery

Here lies the bodies of British, American and Polish troops.

A memorial that was not too far from the cemetery. People laid flower and poppy rings to pay respect who defended our freedom.

 

Trip Details:

• We hiked through some of the woodland areas at the Hoge Veluwe National Park and National Park Veluwezoom. Both of which are very close to each other.
• Foraging mushrooms or fungi are banned in most part of the Netherlands, even if you know certain varieties are perfectly edible for humans. We have heard some Eastern European got fined by the park rangers for doing so. The reason is that the national parks want to preserve the ecology and to ensure the wild animals can sustain themselves into the cold winter.
• The easiest way to get there is by car – 1 hour from either Amsterdam or Eindhoven. There is a car park across the road from Camping Warnsborn, which was our start point of the hike.

Where did you go on your recent hike? How was it? Comment below and we would love to hear from you!