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Smell the sea

And feel the sky

Let your soul and spirit fly

Into the mystic

                                              Van Morrison

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Into the mystic

I was looking for a song or a quote to let you know how I experienced the next walk when I stumbled upon a song by Van Morrison called Into the Mystic. These few lines exactly express my feeling of today. Today is Saturday, and we are going to walk between the Hague and Kijkduin. It is a bit of a special day for me for today my sister is going to walk with me. She is fully recovered from her meningitis and already training for a 50km walk at the end of May. I am so proud of her!

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Maart roert zijn staart 

There is a saying in the Netherlands: maart roert zijn staart (March is stirring its tail) and it means as much as you can expect…any kind of weather in March. It can rain heavily, it can be very windy but it can also be beautiful weather with the sun shining. Sometimes it even snows in March. No matter which month we are in, my day mostly starts with sunshine; sunshine in my head and sunshine in my heart. 

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Forces of nature

Another thing that makes my day sunny is the knowlegde that within an hour and a quarter I will meet 13 other Peakers and a tiny little peaker boy. We are going to walk through the dunes and over the beach. How awesome is that? Totally different than the walks we did before.

To me the sea has something mystical. It brings back memories of my youth. We often used to go on an autumn holliday to one of the Frisian Islands. Standing on the beach while there was a huge storm going on, that’s when it felt mystical. On the one hand I have a deep respect for the force of nature of the sea, and on the other hand the feeling there is more between heaven and earth. The sea has a lot of power and can do awful things to us, and there is nothing we can do about it. Stormy water can be very dangerous, but the howling of the wind and the rustling of the waves towards the beach make me humble and respectful to a force I can not control.

Standing on the beach looking at this huge pool of water with nothing as far as I can see also gives me a feeling of freedom. It’s the same kind of freedom I experience when I’m at home, looking across the fields with nothing in sight for as far as the eye can see. There are no limits, nothing that blocks my view. I let my soul and spirit fly. 

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Today’s host

Our host for today is Brenda. I first met Brenda in Glasgow, but I really got to know her last year when she helped me with my last piece of my puzzle. Together we changed my food pattern, and she helped me losing  weight. I had not felt so well in a very long time. All because this beautiful woman showed me how and guide me along the way. And today she is going to show us her backyard. Brenda lives in the Hague and through the dunes she walks us to Kijkduin. Most of you might have heared of Scheveningen, some of you might have been there. Today we are walking in the opposite direction. In every way Kijkduin is smaller than Scheveningen, but they say that is also its charm. From Kijkduin we walked back over the beach to the Hague.

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Peaker conversations

The most precious thing on our walks is meeting new people, new Peakers who just like you like to walk. Embracing those you already know and even those you get to know for the first time is special. It’s that feeling of really getting to know each other, sharing not only the courtesy calls but a real conversation. I try to learn a different side of each and every one who joins the walk. Every trek I get caught by the stories people share with me. Sometimes it’s about work, sometimes about our families, and that what’s connecting us. But we also discuss what’s on our mind, problems with health issues, feelings, whatever needs to be talked about.  And when you walk several walks together I can assure you there is enough that connects us, not to mention MPC. 

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Today I talked, amongst others, with Heleen. Heleen is a new Peaker, and she has a rather odd job. Instead of making vegetable plants better she makes them sick. She does that on purpose!

The ones that survive form the basis for the next generation of plants. She keeps on doing that until she is satisfied about the resilience and all the other qualities. When they are satisfied with the results, they are able to make all kind of new varieties of carrots, onions or cabbage for farmers all over the world. I had never heard of it and found it very interesting talking to her.

Also with us today was Debbie. In October 2018 Debbie gave birth to Benjamin, and he is really the Benjamin amongst us Dutch Peakers. Debbie lives in the Hague and thought it was a good opportunity to go and walk with us today. If it did not go well she could stop, take a bus and go home. I admire her strenghth, for she did not give up and walked with us all the way, every one of the 14,5km (9 miles). And this cute little boy, warmly hidden within her coat, never once gave a sound until we stopped.

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Let your soul and spirit fly 

On the beach the wind was stormy. It was almost impossible to turn around and see where everyone was. If you did, you had to protect your eyes from getting sand into them. But nevertheless the views were amazing. Just before we left the beach to head back to the dunes to walk the last miles, it started to rain.

Luckily when we finished, Brenda treated us to a nice bowl of pumpkin soup. It warmed us from the inside out. With the warmth of the soup, just looking around me to this wonderful group of people, I still could smell the sea and feel the sky, and I let my soul and spirit fly.

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All pictures are made by Ellen Overman, Brenda van Wegen, Linda van den Ham, Vera Koning and Antonette de Groot (Amfion)

Sing, sing at the top of your voice

Love without fear in your heart

Feel, feel like you still have a choice

If we all light up we can scare away the dark

                                                                        Scare away the dark/Passenger

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Scare away the dark

Winter is coming to an end, and spring is knocking on the front door. I have a strong urge to listen to songs that express that feeling of spring coming. I like to sing at the top of my voice, for life seems so much more beautiful when the sun is shining and you realise that it’s a blessing when you’re happy and healthy.

 Why am I sharing this with you? I realise that being happy and healthy is not something we can take for granted, for at this moment, not everybody has a chance to see the sun. They live in the dark. They don’t want to but they have no choice. Something awful happend to a family member of one of our Dutch Peakers Walkers. And choosing to live in the light is not really an option for them at this moment. But maybe if we all light up we can scare away the dark for them just a little bit. Having said that I’m going to take you on our third walk.

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Someren

Today we are in the region of Brabant. When we did my challenge last year, every Dutch Peaker who joined me had to drive a long way to walk with me, some of them even drove for two hours. This year we are walking all over the Netherlands, and it is my turn to drive. For this walk in the region of Brabant, I had to drive an hour and forty-five minutes to reach my destination, a little village called Someren.

 Someren is a place in the middle between Eindhoven and Venlo. But be aware Eindhoven is situated in the region Brabant and Venlo in the region Limburg. Although both regions speak with a soft “g,”  there’s a large difference between the two regions. What they do have in common is that they are both celebrating Carnaval. Both do it in their own way, with a lot of tradition and habits.

Carnaval

As we are walking, Carnaval is only a week away. Today I walk and talk with Petrie. Petrie lives in Venlo and tells me a little bit how they celebrate Carnaval at her place. Four weeks before Carnaval starts in Venlo, there is what they call Boeremoosball. I actually don’t know how to translate this for you but I think Barn Dance is the closest I can think of.

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During this Barn Dance the engagement of a wedding couple is celebrated, and the couple who got married last year show their fresh born baby (it’s all a large outdoor play) to demonstrate that their marriage has been fertile. The wedding couple for this year will be wed on Carnaval’s Tuesday, better known as Fat Tuesday. And you know what? Our Petrie is a real Carnaval partier, for she only slept three hours last night. She had a masked ball, and now she’s walking with us. That’s the real Peaker Spirit or should I say, she is just a little bit crazy?

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The Lieropse Moor

It’s a beautiful day to walk, the sun is shining, and some of us are even walking in MPC2019 t-shirts, fresh delivered in the last couple of weeks. Walking in your t-shirt at the end of February is really an exception. Our first break was at a cosy little restaurant where Ellen, our host for today, treated us coffee or tea with cake. Ellen celebrated her birthday the day before. She turned 60 and is going to walk the West Highland Way with her son this year.

 But we did not drive all the way to Someren just to enjoy a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake.

After leaving the restaurant we walked through a forest to get to the moor. The first thing that came to my mind was this moor is totally different than the one I saw a couple of weeks ago in Drenthe, or perhaps is it just because of the beautiful weather today? Me feeling so much better then a couple of weeks ago? When we walked just  little bit further we stumbled upon a place where you could birdwatch. It was a rather large cabin where we had a wonderful view over the Lieropse Moor.

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People in hiding

Again I’m surprised by today’s walk. In the middle of the woods, not to been seen if you don’t know where to look, are the remains of a  hidden village. It’s called Kamp Dennenlust, a camp for people in hiding during the WWII. These people in hiding lived here from the 28th of December 1943 until the liberation on the 21st of September 1944. They stayed there because they initially tried to evade what was called “Arbeidseinsatz”. People, mostly men between the age of 18 and 35, were forced to work in Germany during the WWII. Stumbling up to such a place always makes me remind me how lucky we are to live in a free world. It silences me.

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With a smile on my face

I told you that the weather was extremely good this day, so we could eat our lunch out in the field and enjoy the first warmth of sunshine. My mother was a big admirer of the sun, not that she did a lot of sunbathing, she didn’t have to, because she got her tan only by being outdoors and sitting just for five minutes in the sun. When winter was done and February started with a little sunshine, she always got a chair, put on her coat and sat in the corner of the garden, letting the first bit of sun on her face. It’s that moment in February that reminds me of her, and it puts a smile on my face.

Being aware of the fact that these few lines of a song don’t mean the same to everybody and nuances are being made, I drive home that evening singing at the top of my voice because I want to love without fear in my heart and with a feeling that I have a choice. And if it might just help one tiny little bit, I light up and scare away the dark for those who need it.

Our second walk on our quest is in the region of Drenthe, which to many Dutch people better known as Het land van Bartje.

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Have you noticed the somewhat strange titel of this blog? Whenever I think of Drenthe, the first thing that comes to my mind, are these words. They are from a book called Bartje, written bij Anne de Vries in 1935 and translated into many languages. Maybe you have heared of it or even read it yourself.

For my dutch readers, there was even a tv serie of it in 1972.

I don’t know about the youth, but every single person of my generation and older grew up knowing these words were spoken by a little boy called Bartje. This little boy grew up in a poor family of farm workers, somewhere in the region of Drenthe.

Because of poverty they ate a lot of brown beans ( in those days they ate them with bacon; it was a cheap meal and it gave you a comfortable fullness of the stomach).

Bartje came from a religious family and therefore had to pray every night before dinner. One night when, as every other night, there were again beans on the table, his father told him to pray. At that moment Bartje spoke the legendary words in dialect: ik bid nie veur brune bonen ( I don’t pray for brown beans). You might have guessed by now, the boy didn’t like these beans and refused to pray.

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The weatherforcast for today is the least dreary fort his weekend. Tomorrow will be a lot worse and wet. Today will be windy, but they promised it will be a day without rain. So let’s hope for the best. I prefer wind over rain.

It’s not the forecast that made us a small group today. Unfortunately we have a flu pandemic that has been going on for 9 weeks already. So far I thought it had passed my door. Unfortunately, a couple of days ago it started with a bad cold, but like so many other people, I didn’t have time to give in. I had two job interviews that needed to be done and of course I had to do the second walk of our challenge. So no whining, I took some aspirin and went.

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Luckely I didn’t have to drive by myself today. Vera was so kind to pick me up. Ever since we met in Glasgow a year and a half ago, the two of us have  become true friends and get along very well. That’s what My Peak Challenge does for you, it provides you with a large group of new friends.

Drenthe is situated in the Northeast of the Netherlands and with almost 500.000 inhabitants the least populated region in the Netherlands.

Although my first memory of this region had every thing to do with a book I read as a child, there are more things this region is famous for. In Drenthe you can find 52 “Hunebedden”. If I have to translate it to english I think “Dolmen” is  the correct word, although archaeologists will tell us differently. Hunebedden are huge Catacombs built of at least three very large stones, you can find them mostly up north from the city of Emmen to the the city of Groningen. Unfortunately not in the part of Drenthe we walked in. Who nows maybe next time I’ll see some.

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Jiska showed us a part of Drenthe I had never been before and I was impressed by it.

Such a small country and still every place I’ve walked so far is so different.

I read somewhere that you can compare Drenthe with a plate upside down. The round center part consists of sandy soils and the borders consist of peat bogs.

We walked in the surroundings of the village Echten and saw both. On the sandy soils we saw beautiful moors. It’s a pity they only bloom from mid-August until the middle of September. Or maybe it’s not so bad after all for now we have a good excuse, to come back, and we will.

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I told you this region is famous for many things and an other one is “witte wieven” (white wives).

These “witte wieven” often appear in Dutch folktales. There are various meanings as what these “witte wieven” stand for. Some say they are the ghost of deceased women, others say they are shreds of mist in hilly landscapes. That’s not surprising, for there was a time we believed that mists where ghosts. Seeing this picture taking by Jiska I believe these “witte wieven” are definetly shreds of mist. Such a beautiful and mystic picture.

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I also learned a new word today, I never heard it before and doubted for a moment if it even exists. But it does and it’s called “drentenieren”’. For those of you who are not familiar with the dutch language, it’s a merging of the words Drenthe and the dutch word for retiring.

It seems that a lot of Dutch people ( with enough money), who are retiring, want to leave the big cities and buy themselves a home in the region of Drenthe. Besides that, it seems that Drenthe is one of the most aging regions. When you ask Dutch people what they remember Drenthe by, they will all probably tell you for biking. There is not a region in the Netherlands where people like to bike more than in Drenthe, and mostly these retired people.

I have to confess that I’m not very proud of this walk. I wasn’t very cosy compagny today. I didn’t talk as much as I normally do and showed very little interest in those walking with me today. I felt realy sick and asked myself why I even decided to go this morning. When we walked a little over 4 miles we took a break. Completly against my principals, I had to ask the quickest way back to the restaurant where we began. The group wouldn’t let me go by myself, and that’s how this walk ended after 7 miles.

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And that’s also what Peakers do; they help each other, they stick together. Thanks ladies!

No brown beans for me that night, but a very hot shower, and a little prayer that this will be over soon. After that it was straight to bed ( and that’s were I was for the next couple of days).

Todays weather forecast

Heavy showers of blessings,

Strong winds to blow your worries away,

Followed by warm hugs and kisses

To put a smile on your face

This Sunday morning the rain is pouring down heavily. If it wasn’t such a special day today, I think I would probably turn around again and go back to sleep. That’s not going to happen because today is going to be the first walk of our new challenge for 2019. In 22 walks we’re going to walk all 12 regions of the Netherlands and we hope, by the end of the year, to raise a lot of money for Bloodwise, one of the charities supported by My Peak Challenge.

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The weather forecast tells us there will be heavy showers today, but if we are lucky, they will not start until we’re done. And lucky we were, for as long as we walked, there was hardly any rain, not more than a couple of lost drops.

This month, January, is the month of the Peakstreak, or for those who are new to the MPC program, they can choose to do the Peak Foundation program. Those of you who are Peakers know exactly what I’m talking about. For those who don’t, the Peakstreak is a challenge, invented by one of the coaches of MPC, to fill the gap between the end of one year’s program and the start of a new one. This year we are asked do “The 100.” Every day you do something a 100 times. You read 100 pages, do a 100 sit ups, do 100 burpees, or walk for 100 minutes. Just be creative.

At first I thought, “I can do this.” I could walk 100 minutes a day, write 100 words a day or, as one of my Dutch Peaker sisters said, I could do a 100 sips (of whisky) each day. Uhhh, that last one sounds good but really, a 100 sips? I couldn’t commit to that, not during this month, (not any other month!) where I promised Bloodwise to lose the booze and I joined a challenge of doing a sugar free detox! And on top of that I promised myself, no honestly I kicked my ass, to get back to the gym, twice a week. The last couple of weeks I haven’t been there much. Shame on me!

So about Peakstreak, what am I going to do about that? Nothing! I am going to do nothing, I am going to be a rebel this month. I am not going to do anything, each day, for 31 days, a hundred times, minutes, miles, yards, kilo’s, sips, steps, bites and anything else you can come up with. I am going to the gym twice a week, lose the booze for a whole month and do the sugar free challenge, and that’s it! If I can do that, it will make me feel a hundred times better. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against the Peakstreak. I love to see and read what everybody else is doing. I just don’t have the motivation of being creative. Doing the things I want to do and holding on to them satisfies for the moment.

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As I told you at the beginning of this story, today we start our first walk. We begin in Hoorn, a region in Noord-Holland which has existed since 1840. It was then that the region named Holland was divided in North and South Holland. The city of Hoorn lies 24 miles north of Amsterdam. Not far from Hoorn lies a very tiny place called Schellinkhout (828 inhabitants) directly situated on the Markermeer. Why am I telling you this? Well, first of all this was the area that fellow Peakers Vera and Henry organized their walk and second, I thought after my last challenge I was done with walking dykes. Yet here I was, walking a dyke for a little more than 4 miles while a very strong wind was blowing and nearly blew us off the dyke. But after 13 miles we had seen some amazing views, historic buildings and even a Dutch mill.

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At the end of 2018 Dutch Peakers Walking was born, and a lot of Dutch Peakers were enthusiastic to join us in walking all over the Netherlands. To do these walks with us, some of us have to drive almost two hours to get there. But every time we meet it feels like a little reunion, there is a lot of hugging and kissing. For those of us who walked frequently last year, we came to know each other pretty well. Others got to see each other for the first time. Positive as we are, and also a little bit crazy, we are determined the weather will improve as soon as we start walking. Apparently we are blessed with heavy showers of good luck. The moment we start walking it’s dry. Those of us who joined us today and wanted to get their heads clear, today was a good day for that.

I told you before, strangers are strangers until they meet. Every walk I meet new people and every walk I have such interesting conversations. Last year I made an appeal in the Dutch Peaker group if there was somebody who would walk with me, and Miranda volunteered. She responded, “I will but what’s the distance you are going to walk?” I said that I do 6 miles at least. And she said, I’m glad I can do half of them. She recently had two operations on her hip.And isn’t it amazing that this same lady walked almost 13 miles today? I am so proud of her!

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I also talked to Saskia today. Saskia is a shepherd. She used to herd a flock of sheep around Rotterdam. And I hear you thinking, what does a shepherd do in the outskirts of a city? Well, I did.  It has everything to do with city’s grazing of the natural environment. Now she herds several flocks of sheep (about 150) on different fields in a bullpen near Maassluis. I thought there were only flocks of sheep in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Apparently I was wrong.

And after a lot of talking and laughing, we came back. And what’s more warming at the end of the day when your guides serve you a nice cup of healthy, homemade soup, and you look around and see all these people with warm rosy cheeks. That puts a smile on my face, and I’m looking forward to the next walk.

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Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead.

Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.

-Albert Camus –

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As I begin writing this, it’s been raining cats and dogs during our drive through Germany. We are not traveling alone. In front of us with a huge trailer attached tot heir car are our dear friends and neighbours. Together we’re drinving to Hungary to celebrate Christmas.

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A little over a year ago our neighbours bought a house in a little place called Miklósi. It was a rather old house with a lot of surrounding ground. So far they have done a lot of renovation.Up till the day before we arrived, the workmen were busy making a second bedroom so we all (except for the children) could sleep in the house. Last summer they moved their mobile home to Hungary, and that’s were the children are sleeping.

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If you wonder what’s in the huge trailor? How about two beds, matrasses, a big garden table, a cabin and some sort of a trunk. A second bedroom means you have to have some extra furniture!

The first day we drove until Bischofsmais, Germany, where we reserved a  hotel room for one night. It was such a nice hotel with very hospitable people and excellent food.

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Because of the Christmas hollidays there was a lot of traffic along the way. We decided to drive through Slovenia, because of a huge traffic jam in Austria. Driving through Slovenia saved us at least an hour. Apparently we weren’t the only ones going on a holliday!

The last couple of weeks have been busy for me and my love. He had a lot of work that had to be done ( my love is a carpenter and runs his own business). People always think there will be no more days after the hollidays, and everyone wants their jobs done before Christmas.

For me, it had also been a busy period. Besides my work, I finished my challenge and at the same time was already thinking and planning a challenge for next year. I asked each and every Dutch Peaker to organize a walk in their own region. A little over 30 Peakers responded to my call. Amazing! Some of them wanted to organize, and others just want to walk.

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So I scheduled 22 walks throughout the year in every region of the Netherlands and even included a whole weekend to one of the Frisian Islands. Each walk is organized by another Peaker. Sometimes even two! My personal challenge for 2019 will be walking all 22 of them.

I think it’s an amazing new challenge for next year. Show me the beauty of your own backyard. Show me places I’ve never been before, Show me views that silence me. Show me nature in every season of the year. Let me meet new Peakers, reconnect with the ones I met before and treasure the stories they tell me. I’m so looking forward to it.

2019 is going to be a challenging year in many ways.

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Besides all these beautiful walks me and my love got infected with the Scotland-virus. Honestly I was already infected when I visited the country over 10 years ago, but every time I go back I get a little homesick leaving the country.

Last year we walked the West Highland Way. This year we’re going to walk the Rob Roy Way.

After having walked the WHW I somehow got addicted to walking. After years of chronic pain,  because of a severe Achilles Tendon injury, I was finally able to walk without almost no pain at all. And once you are addicted, there’s no program to get clean. There is no withdrawl, no cures, no treatments. You simply have to learn to deal with it.

And when you don’t? You begin to feel restless. You’re desperatly seeking a way to do so anyway. A short walk(let’s say 3 miles) is enough to adress some of the symptoms: restless legs, the need to go outside, and the bad temper because you stayed inside for far too long.

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Not going for a walk means you lack of energy, you can’t clear your head and you become uninspired. Does this sound familiair? If so, I’m afraid your an addict yourself.

All the more reasons why you should put on your walking shoes, grab your coat and go outside. Invite friends to come and join you and before you know it you have organized a challenge of 22 walks all over the Netherlands!

I recently read an article by a woman who also walks a lot, and she collected 55 reasons why it should be good to walk. Those of you who don’t like to walk can hardly imagine,  but it makes me happy. My body is producing two important chemicals ( endorfine and serotonine) which makes me feel relaxed. It really loosens me up and when I get back home I feel happy!

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There was one other reason that appealed to me: walking teaches you more about  your own backyard, to look at it in a different perspective. I can assure you it does and doing it with my love or my Dutch peaker sisters, it’s also a social and cozy activity.

But back to our journey in Hungary. It’s late in the evening on day two when we finally arrive in Miklósi. Over the next couple of days we celebrate christmas with our neighbours, made delicious food ouside, and me and my love did some walking.

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We went to Igal, to enjoy the thermal bath, to Kaposvár to have a nice cup of coffee and take some pictures of a Christmas stable with wooden statues. So beautiful.

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On Boxing Day me and my love went to Tihany, a peninsula on lake Botania, and took a long walk. It surprised us that the isle was almost deserted. We passed some large resorts and there was  hardly a soul there. But we also walked into some beautiful views of nature. I think it most be absolutely beautiful in the summer.

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Believe it or not but it was there, while walking, that I already got another idea, another challenge. I think that when I’m done with the Netherlands, my new challenge for 2020 should be walking as many countries in Europe as possible. Asking my European Peakers to organize a walk for me and for other Peakers in their country. How amazing would that be?

Thank you Hungary for the wonderful week we had. We’ll be back, that’s for certain.

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And that’s how 2018 came to an end. I did some awesome things and there will be a lot of them next year.

I wish all my readers a healthy and happy 2019 and let’s walk into 2019!