Netherlands: Den Dolder Forest Walk

One of the forest walks we did last year was in Den Dolder.

The village of Den Dolder is part of the Zeist municipality in Utrecht province. Dutchman and I try to check out a different forest every time we do our walks, but there are days when we just go spontaneously. I think this was one of those days. If I remember it correctly, it was a Sunday and we just checked Google Maps and saw that there is a sizable green lush in Den Dolder so we decided to go there.

That’s just to give you an idea how we make use of Google Maps, haha.

The forest is on the other side of the Den Dolder train tracks.

I can’t remember how many kilometers we walked in total but we did over 2 hours walking.

It was a beautiful balmy autumn day in the Netherlands. The sun was shining and the skies were blue. We saw the purple “heide” (heather) flowers blooming across the fields. During the walk, we envountered like-minded people strolling in the forest, some with their dogs, while others with their families. There were many people biking along the route as well and we met a few even on horseback.

It was one of those very nice extended summer-feel days in September.

Dutchman and I managed to also cross the tracks towards Soesterberg where an important military facility used to be located. There is still a runway in Soesterberg and this is now being used for non-military activities such as the launching of glider planes. We saw a couple of these one-seater planes hovering above us in the air. I am not sure if I would like to experience this myself though.

This weekend was also a week after a girl (Anna Faber) went missing in the area. She was biking through the forest and even stopped to send a selfie to her boyfriend. The news of her disappearance went viral in the Netherlands. She was later found dead and the murderer, who was recently sentenced in court, was a patient of a psychiatric clinic located nearby in the forest. The clinic basically helps criminals who are almost pardoned reintegrate into the society. So sad to learn about the fate of this girl but it was also strange to learn of the news after we have walked in the area.

After the walk, we treated ourselves to some bittergarnituur (a platter of Dutch-style deep-fried snacks) and some drinks at the De Egelantier Cafe beside the tracks.

Not much to complain. It was a beautiful Sunday.

We were greeted with these lavender coloured flowers. It’s not lavender, its heather, called “heide” in Dutch. It is a perennial shrub that grows in the fields here in the Netherlands.

Heide / Heather in early autumn.

This sign is typically the Netherlands and you can only find signs like this here. It means that the street is for bikers’ use and cars may use it as well as a guest… so car drivers need to drive slow and give priority to bikers.