Wild Wonderful Wednesday

Today is a 5th Wednesday, so it is something completely different. In March we went on a walk along our canal to one of the local castles. Today we will take a walk to the other castle mentioned in March - Pietersheim. 

The actual castle ruins from the 12th century are mostly just walls and a gate tower. A section of the wall has been restored and a hall has been built with local stone to match the original stone. Local events are held here and wedding parties like to come here for pictures. 

More interesting to us are the grounds. Pietersheim is a full park with paths running through the woods bringing the walkers along a gnome route. Gnomes - like the ones you can put in your front yard - are called “kabouters” here (ka-BOW-terz). Walking through these woods is always fun with the kids. They run ahead looking for the houses in the trees, knocking on the doors to see if any gnome will answer the door. 

Further in the park we come to a children’s petting farm with horses, goats, chickens, rabbits and deer. This is all situated in a green area next to a playground for kids of all ages and of course a cafe for the parents waiting on and watching their kids. Ice cream, cold drinks and good coffee are to be had by all. We brought our young people here this past weekend for part of our Youth Day. 

This is also the beginning of a long nature walk into the nearby woods and fields. Nearby is a tower to climb which looks out over the whole area. There is also a “bare foot walk” where you can experience all sorts of things walking along the path in bare feet. 

But we are going to walk home leaving through the other side of the park than where we entered. This road is flanked by tall trees and seems quite pleasant. On the one side is what the locals call the “Gold Coast” - very rich houses at the edge of the woods. On the other side is a large farm where jumping horses are bred and trained. These horses have won medals in the olympics and are know all over the world. If you see a horse with a “-Z” at the end of the name - it came from here. 

This road bends to the right and comes out of the woods to head straight for the street light at our busy street. This street was originally the Roman road. Now it is simply a busy street running north-south. We cross at the light and enter our village again, walking past the specialist butcher on the left. This is the only shop in our village besides the apothecary out on the Main Street. There are several restaurants, but no shops. 

The street comes to a t-intersection at a statue of a lion. This is a war monument, remembering the 2 soldiers from the village who died in “the Great War” (WW1). I wonder how wars will be remembered in the near future. Thankfully, we live in what is now a peaceful little village. We walk past the local Catholic Church building and return home to grab a drink of water and a rest after a long walk.