Driving through the Belgian province of Limburg we noticed the old mining museum and I could not resist taking a few shots of the old reminders of times gone by.
Then we went to the Dutch province of Limburg, which is the most southerly province of the Netherlands, hugging the borders of Germany and Belgium. We went to the South of Limburg which is a very scenic area. It is hilly,and has beautiful countryside to enjoy. Wonderful huge farmhouses almost looking like castles with pretty courtyards and orchards with old (and not so old) fruit trees...In summer it is very busy with tourists and better be avoided!

Zuidhollandse Molen van Hank: achtkant, built in 1791

Oude Doornse molen van Almkerk: achtkant schepradmolen, built in 1700.

We were lucky to meet the miller who was going to get one of these mills going!
Uitwijkse en Zandwijkse wipwatermolens : wipwatermolens, Almkerk, built in 1700.

Emmen is the largest town in the Drenthe region and the second largest town in the Northern Netherlands. It has approximately 105,000 inhabitants and is the leading city for education in this part of the country.
It is internationally famous for its “Noorder Dierenpark” a zoo that attracts almost two million visitors each year.
It was a very bright sunny day and the deep shadows of the trees did not really help to get really good pics. I hope you will enjoy them anyway!

In 1220 the count of Holland granted franchise rights to Dordrecht. It was the first time that he had bestowed this privilege. Dordrecht may thus call itself the oldest city of ‘Holland'.
In the Hof [Court], which still exists (photo 24-28), important history was written. In 1572 during the Spanish rule, it housed the First Assembly of the Free States. All twelve cities of Holland, with the exception of Amsterdam, took part in a secret meeting. They resolved unanimously to turn against the Spanish oppressors. They chose Prince William of Orange as their stadholder. Together with the Union of Dordrecht (1575), in which the constitution was established, the Assembly of the Free States is considered to be the beginning of the independent state of the Netherlands.

Behind the Groothoofdspoort [gate at the city's main jetty] the history is tangible. You can touch it in streets which were never meant for cars. The old inner city can best be explored on foot. By way of the elegant Wijnstraat for example, with its merchants' houses and gentle bends, ending at the characteristic Grote Kerk [Great Church]. Or along the cosy inner harbours, where trade has died down but the atmosphere of yesteryear lives on.
The best traditions of a mediaeval mercantile city are reflected in nearly a thousand monuments. It is with good reason that the cityscape is protected cultural heritage.

Bergen op Zoom was granted city status probably in 1266. In 1287 the city and its surroundings became a lordship as it was separated from the lordship of Breda. The lordship was elevated to a margraviate in 1559. Several families ruled Bergen op Zoom in succession until 1795, although the title was only nominal since at least the seventeenth century.

During the early modern period, Bergen op Zoom was a very strong fortress and one of the main armories and arsenals of the United Provinces. It had a remarkable natural defensive site, surrounded as it was by marshes and easily-floodable polders. Furthermore, it could receive reinforcements and supplies by sea, if the besieging army did not have a fleet to blockade its port.

Due to these features, the city was one of the strategic points held by the revolted Dutch in the Eighty Years War. It was at that time besieged by Alessandro Farnese first in 1587, and by Ambrosio Spinola a second time in 1622. Both sieges were unsuccessful.

In 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession, the French army laid siege to it again. At that time, Bergen op Zoom had fortifications built in the beginning of the 17th Century by Menno van Coehoorn, with three forts surrounding the city and a canalized sprout of the Escaut acting as a ditch around its walls. However, it had no second line of fortifications, nor any fortress. After seventy days of siege, the city was taken and thoroughly sacked ; the garrison was slaughtered. Due to this battle, the name of the city can be seen on one of the arches on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
From WIKIPEDIA

Delft is one of Holland's best preserved canal-, and bridges-city and the native town of the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
But it is not just a home of history, painting and culture but also a lively university town focused on science and high-tech.

The pictures of the balloons were taken once back home in Breda in a friends garden!
Breda Ballon Fiesta is one of the main events of the city of Breda. On August 2, 3 and 4, 2007 Breda was Ballooning for the 22nd time.
Over 35 hot-air balloons, Dutch as well as foreign ones, were sailing over the city and her surroundings, depending on the direction of the wind.

we like to walk here and look for fungi in Autumn!

walking along the river Mark

The park has been created after the work of the artist Anton Pieck. Later some modern stuff was added.
Have a look at Antn Piecks work here, just click on the pics to see the next one!
http://home.wanadoo.nl/kleineboodschap/index.html
Efteling has been awarded with the THEA Classic Award. Efteling received this lifetime achievement award for its complete oeuvre and for the fact that it has been operating successfully for more than 50 years. This prize was awarded by the global organisation of designers of theme locations and events (TEA, Themed Entertainment Association) and can be regarded as the Oscar in the entertainment world. Twenty international jurors from the entertainment industry chose Efteling unanimously.
It is the most visited tourist attraction in the Netherlands.
As it is only 10 miles from my house we used to go there with out kid ...now we went back...sort of Nostalgia. First time I visited was in 1960!

The forest and fens of Oisterwijk is located south of Oisterwijk, a little town near Tilburg in the dutch provence of Noord-Brabant. The area is about 7,5 square kilometers and the natural ponds were formed after the last ice age. It is a nature reserve of outstanding natural beauty. The reserve is owned and kept by the 'Vereniging Natuurmonumenten' (Nature Monuments).
----
For Mike....
The moorland pools in the region of the SE of Oisterwijk have an established reputation among Dutch hydrobiologists. This fame is to a large extent attributable to the extensive surveys of the desmid flora by Professor J. Heimans in the period between 1916 and 1925. His studies revealed an exceptional opulence of this algal group viz., a total of 250 species among which quite a number not recorded from any other locality in the Netherlands and also to be included among the rarities in a larger geographical region.
The moorland pools are originally oligotrophic, because the soil consists of nutrient poor cover sands. The original vegetation of most pools belongs to theIsoeto-Lobelietum and the consociation ofCarex rostrata andSphagnum.
An inventory of the desmid flora in a number of forest and moorland pools, carried out in 1975, revealed that an appreciable impoverishment has occurred since the turn of the century. In those pools which are immediately surrounded by arable land and pastures or are connected with cultivated areas by small streams, the deterioration is caused by eutrophication and pollution of the aquatic environment. In hydrologically isolated pools, situated within nature reserves, the decline must be attributed to an acidification and oligotrophication of the site. The latter phenomenon may be associated with a much increased acid deposition in the atmospheric precipitation owing to air pollution, as recorded in the Netherlands especially in the last decennia.

Nijmegen is the oldest town in the Netherlands and appropriately associated with the Romans, Charlemagne, the Annual Four Day Walking Event and the Summer Festivities, which are just a few examples.
Nijmegen is also a university town with an exuberant streak where culture and quality go hand in hand.

The first 44 photos were taken in the rural district of Beuningen which is situated by the Waal with its river forelands and fascinating panoramic views, all enclosed by polders. Many age-old farm houses are a reminder of the times when this area was characterised by frugal country life. Today, however, nothing reminds us of the grinding poverty of the past, when it was difficult to earn a living on badly drained clay soil.
Explore the Land of Maas and Waal and discover the abundance between the rivers.

The province of Zeeland is in fact one big river delta, situated as it is at the mouth of several big rivers. Most of the province lies beneath sea level and was reclaimed from the sea by the people over time. What used to be a muddy landscape flooded at high tide and reappearing at low tide, first became the scene of small man-made hills that would stay dry at all times. Later the people of the province would connect the hills by creating dikes, which lead to a chain of dry land that later grew into bigger islands and gave the province its current shape. The shape of the islands has been changing through time both by the hands of man and nature. The North Sea flood of 1953 claimed vast amounts of land that were only partially reclaimed. The subsequent construction of the Delta Works also changed the face of the province. The infrastructure (although very distinct by the amount of bridges, tunnels and dams) hasn't shaped the province as much as the geography of the province has shaped the infrastructure. The dams, tunnels and bridges that are currently a vital part of the province's road system were constructed over the space of decades and came to replace old ferry lines. The final touch to this process came in 2003 when the Westerschelde tunnel was opened. It was the first solid connection between both banks of the Westerschelde and ended the era of water separating the islands and peninsulas of Zeeland.

Flevoland is a province of the Netherlands named after Lacus Flevo, a name recorded in Roman sources for a large inland lake at the southern end of the later formed Zuiderzee. The province was established on January 1, 1986; the twelfth province of the country, with Lelystad as its capital.
After a flood in 1916, it was decided that the Zuiderzee, an inland sea within the Netherlands, would be enclosed and reclaimed: the Zuiderzee Works started. In 1932, the Afsluitdijk was completed, which closed off the sea completely. The Zuiderzee was subsequently called IJsselmeer (lake at the end of the river IJssel).