Witte Fietsen

Memorial Day in Holland is a public holiday to celebrate Pentecost. Call it what you will, it meant that Jerry, and the rest of the country had the day off! And just like in America the citizens took to the roads to visit beaches, parks and restaurants. We headed an hour west to Hoge Veluwe, the largest park in the Netherlands and home of the famous Witte Fietsen or white bikes. Since the 70's the park has had white bikes stashed at every entrance and folks can hop on a bike(all with adjustable seats and handlebars and child seats) and cruise all around the park and hop off whenever they wish. Go visit the museum, come out, hop on a bike outside and on you go! Our family has never been able to go on a bike ride together because Molly can't ride a bike. Jerry usually rides with the other kids and Mol and I walk or run. So this was a special day. The community is so welcoming to people with any kind of disability and works to make everything in the country accessible. I did some sleuthing and discovered that special bikes of several varieties could be reserved for free. We also got special low admission prices for the girls. The bike we chose had a wheelchair-ish seat up front for Molly and a regular bike in back for me to peddle. It was so much fun! Molly and I talked and laughed the whole time. Charlotte did great navigating the trails and Jerry and Danny are old pros of course. I have big plans for a special bike for our family when we get back to the US, and many more bike rides in the future!
We got our bikes first thing and rode out with our trail map, 4 hours and 15miles or so later we arrived back at the visitors center to get our picnic. Everyone was starving! And of course there was a lovely cafe for me to grab a koffe, life is good. A little history...
The park was established by the businessman Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller as an private estate in 1909. They believed in the unity of art and nature and wanted to share this belief/pleasure with the whole country. Up until 1923 the park was under construction with wildlife being imported and the building of the hunting lodge and fences. The hunting residence is called St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge after St. Hubertus and was designed by prominent Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. Helene Kröller-Müller was an art collector and work had begun on a museum inside the park. Due to worsening economic conditions the building of the museum was halted and the couple found themselves unable to keep the estate. In 1935 the art collection was donated to the State of the Netherlands, which then continued to build the Kröller-Müller Museum. The park was handed over to a foundation, which received a loan from the State. At that time the estate became the second national park in the Netherlands. The park is still one of the two private owned national parks in the Netherlands, but the only one that asks a entrance fee. The park has a large population of Red deer, wild boar, Roe deer, Mouflons and many endangered species of birds,frogs,snakes,etc. Alas, all we saw was a hawk slowly circling around. Oh well! At times the areas we rode through resembled Posen, MI and at times we felt like we were in Africa! It was so cool.
After lunch we walked to the museum through the sculpture park. Danny's favourite sculpture was one you could play on. In the museum we saw many Van Gogh works, which made extremely happy. What a day-biking,walking,art,food,family time; I know this  fed every part of our souls!

We are ready to hit the trails, the bicycle repair shop maintains the 1700 witte fietsen in the park!

sweet climbing opportunities

one of the trails

Charlotte shows off her witte fiets

this landscape was neat

photo op!

Molly eye view of a trail

Jerry,Charlotte and Danny cruise ahead( I was riding and photographing!)

well earned sandwiches

a stratigraphic pile (ask Jerry what that means!)

the floor of the ondermuseum

a sculpture entitled The Library

The gardens were filled with 20 feet high rhododendron bushes

we named this sculpture "Sleeping Papa" that is what the Dutch kids call their Dad :)

"Jardin d' email " sculpture

Picasso's

Leger, 1917

Van Gogh's!

this sculpture(?) was called Two Adjacent Boxes  Art? You be the judge!

Guess what this is called....

my own sculpture, called Shadow of Love