A friend of mine called me to go on a weekend trip with her close to home. As I had visited Trier the weekend before, we opted for a destination in The Netherlands. There are so many places I would still love to explore in the Netherlands that I find it hard to choose. This time the choice was based on a site in Zutphen (which I will show you in the next post) and the tallest waterfall of the Netherlands.
Waterfall of Loenen
The tallest waterfall in the Netherlands might sound incredibly impressive. However, words can deceive. For those of you who haven’t been to this country yet, the Netherlands is known for being flat. We call our hills mountains. So, it’s not a real feat to be called the tallest anything here. Therefore the tallest waterfall is only 50 feet high; and it’s man-made.
It’s dubbed (sarcastically) the “Niagara of the Veluwe”. It’s part an artificial canal which transports water from the top of the Vrijenberg (one of the high mountains (read: hills) nearby), into the canal.
This waterfall has four different levels and lies in the middle of a woodland area. It gets crowded during summer due to the excited Dutchies who love to tramp around inside the water. As such, it’s a bit tricky to photograph. It’s also impossible to get far enough away from the waterfall, as the area is cordoned off. You’ll either be standing in the water or right next to the falls.
All the negativity aside, it’s still a nice area to visit in this country. And let’s be honest, we have to appreciate all the height we get here.
The waterfall is located close to the road between Beekbergen and Loenen. There’s free parking near the sight.
Schaapskooi in Loenen
The waterfall entertained us for around twenty minutes. We didn’t have any other plans for the area so we used our lovely friend Google to find out what to do next.
That’s how we found out that sheep herding used to be quite a thing in this region. This area is known for its manure, wool and meat and as such every village had multiple herds of sheep. Even today, some farmers still have their own herds. The sheep chill & eat during the day and at night they are returned to the schaapskooi (sheepfold).
There are some places where you can watch the sheep getting herded back to their home by dogs & the farmer. In terms of timing, the shepherd leaves to the heath at 9am every day and he returns at 4pm. We were there at 4. Granted, it’s probably not the most entertaining this you might have done on your travels but it’s fun to see sheep dogs in action.
It’s always nice to get an animal related photo (or is that just me?).
The sheepfold is now a visitor centre, where you can learn more about the sheep.
This particular sheepfold is located at the end of Droefakkers in Loenen. There’s free parking in the woods.
Where to Stay?
If you would like to visit these two sights, a good place to stay is Beekbergen. I’ll give you two more reasons why I would advise you to stay in the vicinity in my upcoming posts. Spoiler alert: there are beautiful National Parks nearby, which are really worth a visit. I stayed at the Fletcher Hotel-Restaurant Het Veluwse Bos, which is a nice hotel with free parking and a great restaurant.
The town of Beekbergen isn’t what one would call bustling, but it’s still worth a visit. We had a drink on a terrace at “De Heksenketel”. Here I found my first (and actually last) Bavaria (with Tequila) with 0.0% alcohol. I do drink alcohol, but I really do enjoy this 0.0% trend. I’m happy to see it has reached one of my favourite flavours.
Conclusion
Most of the people reading this post will probably already know that Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht aren’t the only sights in the Netherlands. I have only started doing this recently, but I really enjoy exploring more of my own country. I will dedicate two more posts on the subject of this one weekend trip. The next one will be about one particular activity in National Park Veluwezoom.
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