For a couple of years I kept a log of all my walks, mainly to see how much walking I was doing. But I soon got behind with the log, and now I've given up and only occasionally list them in a private diary. But it might be interesting to keep these logs as a little bit of history.
| Date | Description | From | To | Distance | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02.05.2009 | ns Utrechtse Heuvelrug | Driebergen-Zeist | Maarn | 14km | Pleasant walk in the woods with friends on an early spring day |
| 10.05.2009 | ns Veluwezoom | Dieren | Velp | 14km | I’ve done a lot of variants on this, but I think this was the first time for the ns walk “according to the book” — Velp only has an hourly train service on Sundays, so it would have been better to reverse the walk. |
| 22.05.2009 | law 5 Visserspad | Den Haag | Katwijk | 21.5km | I was going to do the Meijendel walk, but it was a lovely day, so just kept going. Drawback is that the bus from Katwijk to Den Haag is filled to bursting with kids on the way home from Duinrell. |
| 24.05.2009 | ns Elsterberg | Rhenen | Veenendaal-West | 17.5km | One of the few walks in Holland where you get actual views. The last bit into Veenendaal isn’t so nice: a couple of km of Stalag-Weekendhouse and then a newly-built suburb. |
| 01.06.2009 | ns Bieslandse Bos | Delft | Zoetermeer | 10 km | Surprisingly pleasant half -day walk, very near home. Last bit into Zoetermeer is a bit dull. |
| 06.06.2009 | ns De Vuursche | Baarn | Hollandsche Rading | 13 km | First time I’ve done this one — agreeable walk in the woods, very little along roads except for a bit alongside the main road at Soestdijk Palace that could easily be avoided if you don’t want to see the palace. |
| 12.06.2009 | ns De Horsten (reversed) | Voorschoten | Den Haag | 21 km | Did this one backwards on a Friday afternoon, partly to try out new gps and partly because I like the feeling of emerging fromthe woods into the centre of a big city |
| 13.06.2009 | ns Warnborn (reversed) | Wolfheze | Arnhem | 18 km | Backwards again — mostly because there’s only one train an hour from Wolfheze. The bonus is that you’re not forever following the same walkers! |
| 15.06.2009 | ns Noord-Hollands Duinreservaat | Castricum | Egmond aan Zee | 16 km | I had a day off on an overcast Monday, and headed for North Holland because the forecast gave it the lowest chance of showers: they were right, and it’s a great walk, lots of variation between woods and open duneland. |
| 20.06.2009 | ns Bieslandse Bos (variant) | Delft | Pijnacker | 7 km | Just for fun — cut the walk short at Pijnacker, but came home a long way round by Randstadrail, train and tram. |
| 21.06.2009 | ns Wekeromse Zand | Wolfheze | Lunteren | 23 km | A slight disappointment: the landscape of wood and heath is very attractive, esp. the Wekeromse Zand itself and the woods around Lunteren, but the route follows cycle paths or roads for about 80% of the way, so you don’t see much you wouldn’t see from a bike. |
| 23–27.06.2009 | (short holiday in North Norfolk) | Did quite a few bits of the coastal path. | |||
| 04.07.2009 | ns Laag-Soeren (reversed) | Brummen | Dieren | 20 km | Very pleasant walk, with a good mixture of woods and farmland, but it was a bit too hot, even when doing the walk in reverse to get the thick woods in the afternoon. Incidentally: it’s nice that they’ve planned it so that there’s very little overlap with the Veluwezoom walk, even though you come into Dieren from almost the same direction. The section along the Apeldoorn Canal is very pretty, but was rather spoilt by noise of the main road on the other side of the water. |
| 15.07.2009 | ns Landgoed Groeneveld | Baarn | Hilversum Noord | 15 km | Very pleasant, the English-style park of Kasteel Groeneveld, then woods and finally heathland between Laren and Hilversum. There’s quite a contrast between the little bit of Baarn and the little bit of Hilversum you walk though! |
| 25.07.2009 | ns Kroondomein (day 2) | Elspeet | Harderwijk | 18 km | The northern part of the Veluwe for a change: attractive woodlands and estate farms, and not many other walkers, although that might have been because of the unpromising weather. Elspeet is intended as the overnight stop of this two-day walk, but it’s easy enough to get to by bus from Nunspeet. |
| 26.07.2009 | ns Belmonte (reversed) | Wageningen | Ede-Wageningen | 16 km | This is one that looks better on the ground than on the map: the rather nondescript-looking strip of green along the southern edge of Wageningen turns out to be an impressive little escarpment, the Wageningse Berg, with nice views over the river and the Belmonte estate with its arboretum on the top. |
| 01.08.2009 | nsLigtenbergerveld | Rijssen | Holten | 18 km | A rare venture into the Dutch far East (Twente). This walk has a very good beginning and end, but perhaps a shade too much asphalt between the two: the stretch along the winding river Regge is well worth it, though. |
| 26.08.2009 | ns Holtenerberg | Nijverdal | Holten | 14 km | Twente, again, crossing the Sallandse Heuvelrug from North to South. Lovely rolling heaths with impressive views (for the Netherlands). |
| 30.08.2009 | nsKennemerduinen (extended) | Santpoort Noord | Haarlem | 23 km | The Kennemerduin area is squashed in between the city of Haarlem, the seaside resort of Zandvoort, and the heavy industry at ijmuiden, but it still manages to feel wild and remote, and is not too overrun, even on a summer Sunday. That is spoilt rather on this walk by the middle section along the beach near cafe Parnassia and its giant car park, where you’re suddenly plunged back into the crowded 21st century. Since I had a bit of energy left over, I extended the walk a bit by walking on through the old city centre of Haarlem rather than finishing in the suburb of Overveen. |
| 05.09.2009 | ns Veerse Wateren | Middelburg | Arnemuiden | 22 km | This was a one-day walk, then it disappeared for a while, and now it’s back again in the nslist as a rather short two-day walk. Although it would certainly be pleasant to spend a night in Veere, it is easy enough to walk the whole route in one day. Apart from the historic centre of Middelburg, The first 6km is a rather dull slog over country roads, but from that point on it’s an interesting and varied route, a lot of it over little-used grassy footpaths. Zeeland is a place for cycling and boating: I only met about four other walkers all day. |
| 07.09.2009 | Utrechtpad | Leersum | Veenendaal-West | 21 km | For once, not an official railway walk, but a section of a long-distance trail that might as well be one. The starting point is a half-hour bus ride from Driebergen-Zeist station. The last 5km are also part of the ns Elsterberg route that I’ve done a few times, but the rest of the walk was new, a bit of the Utrecht woodlands I hadn’t explored before. A very pleasant walk, mainly though trees, but the occasional bit of open heath. No road walking at all except for the last little bit into Veenendaal. |
| 13.09.2009 | ns Hollandse Biesbosch | Dordrecht | Dordrecht Stadspolders | 16 km | This was one of the first ns walks I ever did, years ago. The middle bit through the rough woodland outside the dykes along the edge of the Nieuwe Merwede is very good, but there’s too much asphalt in the opening and closing sections of the walk. |
| 18.09.2009 | ns Lange Duinen (rev.) | Hollandsche Rading | Amersfoort | 22 km | Very nice visually, mostly woods and a couple of short sections of inland sand dunes. Most of the way you’re relatively close to roads, railway lines, or light aircraft flying from Soesterberg airfield, so it’s not a walk on which you can really feel cut off from the busy world. The last section into Amersfoort isn’t as bad as it looks on the map (it is along roads, but it’s a fairly quiet residential district). |
| 20.09.2009 | Marskramerpad | Hollandsche Rading | Breukelen | 16 km | The Marskramerpad in the opposite direction from the previous walk, in a very different landscape: polders, wetland and lakes rather than sandy woodland. Attractive views, and mostly well away from towns and busy roads, but about half the walk is on asphalt. |
