Tag Archives: Wildflowers

Pieterpad: Gennep to Vierlingsbeek

Hiking, The Netherlands, Travel, , , , , ,

June 27 – We heard rain early this morning, but it stopped by the time we finished breakfast. Twelve miles planned for this cool and cloudy day.

Programming my phone for today’s itinerary
Good morning, masked horses! The masks help keep the flies out of their eyes
The way markers seem clearer today, or maybe we’re getting smarter? The Pieterpad marker is the red and white in the middle.
A nice shady path
A bit of road walking, with a decorated overpass
…painted on both sides!
Take care – chicken crossing ahead! We did not see any chickens…
A big field of wildflowers
This was the only cafe we passed by today, but we had already eaten our lunch with a pot of Jim’s good coffee, so we didn’t stop in.
Now, here’s a sign you don’t see every day! An unusual way to alert folks that there is a ferry crossing ahead.
Sitting and waiting for the ferry – how often does it run?
It runs about every five minutes, taking pedestrians, bicyclists and cars across the Meuse River
The ferryman collected one euro from each person, and before we knew it, we were on the other side.
Some more good signage – don’t take this path!
Look in the distance – that must be Vierlingsbeek!
We walked into town and waited on the church steps for Nena from the Hotel de Kroon to come pick us up. The walk to Meerlo is too long for us old folks to complete in one go (24 miles and a bit) so our travel company split it into two 12 mile walking days with a rest day in between. This is the good life!

Pieterpad – Take Two!

Germany, The Netherlands, Travel, ,

June 17, 2025 – You may remember that Jim and I had plans to hike the Pieterpad in the Netherlands back in the fall of 2023. Instead, we both got Covid and spent most of our vacation holed up in a motel, waiting to feel better.

Jim is not a person who can let a good trail go unhiked, so we are on our way back to Germany and the Netherlands to try again. Here’s to a healthy month!

June 18 – We flew from Norfolk to Newark, walking off one plane and directly onto the plane to Frankfurt with no incidents to report. We figured out the Frankfurt subway sufficiently to get to our hotel. Once we found the correct train, it was easy peasy, with stops displayed and spoken in both German and English.

We are staying at the Rioca, a Brazilian themed hotel with tropical furnishings and recorded bird calls in the hallways. We’ll be here a few days to get over our jet lag.

Feels like we’re in Rio!
The sign outside our hotel door, in case we forget where we are staying
The hotel has a rooftop restaurant with a lovely view of the city
We ventured out to find a grocery store. Fields of wildflowers are planted along the walkway to attract birds and insects. With only two hours of sleep last night, we tumbled gratefully into bed. Tomorrow we will explore!

Belleville to Verona

Backpacking, Hiking, Ice Age Trail, , , , , ,

7/21 – Cameo Rose B and B continued to delight us with fresh cut flowers and a four course breakfast garnished with mint and lemon balm from the garden. I meant to take a picture, but it slipped my mind when I saw the stuffed French toast… Oh my!

We got back on the Badger Trail, and had a lovely two hour trek on the straight Rails to Trails path before we found ourselves back on the highway at noon. Today was very warm by Wisconsin standards, in the upper 80s. Once again, a Nice Person of Wisconsin stopped for us almost immediately, saying that it was much too hot to walk. When we said we were on our way to Verona, this lovely lady changed direction and took us all the way to our hotel, even though she wasn’t originally going into town. Thank you, Nice Person!image

We’ve decided that the reason so many people stop for us is my floppy blue hat. What do you think?

We will be in Verona for several days, completing the Ice Age trail segments nearest to town in the mornings, and returning to the hotel in the afternoon. This is an especially nice way to hike, as we can leave our packs behind.

7/22 – today the weather warns of record-breaking heat (high of 90!!), so we set out early to be done by the hottest part of the afternoon. The trail starts behind the public library, which, of course, is on Silent Street. Love a town with a sense of humor!image
The trail took us through some wildflower-filled meadows and up a hill that let us look over the town below. We found ourselves humming “the hills are alive” and looking for Julie Andrews… What a lovely morning!image

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We want to take a moment to thank the state of Wisconsin again for setting aside land, mowing and maintaining so many parks, bike paths and multi-use trails, and the Ice Age Trail volunteers for all they do!image

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