June 28:

Joke had previously sent us some ideas of places to visit. They were centered around Assen: some megaliths and a fort of William of Orange from around 1742. We were not exactly sure where these places were but we decided to head for Assen and then go from there. 

We started by driving through Baarn, the next town over from Soest, and drove past a school. Sometimes the Dutch put out large pencils to make you notice you're passing a school. Clever and cute.






Driving down the road, you see things like this to break-up the monotony.




We also saw many fields with white blooms and many with purple blooms and we didn't know what they were. We don't think it was clover but would accept anyone's ideas.










After about 2 1/2 hours, we park in the middle of Assen just after noticing the visitor's center sign and walk over. The people there are not quite as helpful as we had hoped, but they directed us over to Rolde where there is a megalith behind the church. If she had not told us that it was behind the cemetery behind the church we would have never found it. 



Its a pretty little church in what looks like a very affluent village. As we walked to the back of the church, we saw a group of firemen and several trucks and bystanders standing around a hole. We asked two women standing beside us what was going on. When asked if they spoke English, the women said, "a little". That's what we hear a lot. The truth is they spoke a great deal of English and told us what was going on. The story was that a pony had fallen into an open grave and they were trying to get him out. As we watched two men climbed the ladder out of the hole and were sprayed down. The smell was horrible - almost like they were working on a broken sewer line.



The cemetery had a large number of tombstones that looked like these. They had a version of the "Tree of Life" on the top of each. Then the facts of the deceased, below.









They were still working on this project when we left so we don't know the end of the story. It must have been very muddy in that hole and tough to get the sling around the horse. Prays for the horse.



Linda found the rocks, we think it was a gravesite, and was very proud of herself.



Why aren't any excavations going on?











While she was hanging around looking at it a bee came by to visit.

After this we headed for another site but as we got near it, the gravel road was too muddy to continue. Scratch off anymore megaliths and we head for Bourtange where the fort is. 

This is the design of the fort:

Okay - here comes the history lesson, so if that's not your thing, skip to the next paragraph and the picture of Linda. The Eighty Years' War marks the beginning of the fortress' history. In 1580 prince "Willem van Oranje" ordered the building of an entrenchment with five bastions on a sandy ridge in the swamps near the Dutch-German border. The road that connected the city of Groningen with the cities of Lingen and Westphalen used to run over this sandy ridge, or "tange" in Dutch. The Spanish, the adversaries of the Dutch during the war, used this road to bring supplies to the city of Groningen, which was in Spanish hands. Prince William hoped to isolate the city by building the entrenchment. It was completed in 1593 under the command of count Willem Lodewijk van Nassau. Throughout the centuries Bourtange was further reinforced until the onset of "modern warfare". Eventually, Bourtange lost its military status, the fortress was dismantled in 1851. Bourtange grew into a thriving agricultural village where craftsmen, traders and farmers found a place.

This is a well-preserved fort in the shape of a 5 point star. With this shape you can set your canons on each rampart and crossfire against your opponents. 






















Notice the cutouts in the walls to allow the canons to shoot and still be somewhat protected.

We're not sure of all of the history of this place. We were told there was a film with English subtitles but it didn't have them. Most of the plaques were in Dutch. We did buy a pamphlet that had some English in it and that's what is included above.


As we've seen in other places such as the living quarters in a windmill, beds were built into walls and were very small. These people were certainly not the size of present day Dutch.
















Check out the bed in the background. 

There were four small museums that showed what rooms looked like and what tools and equipment have been excavated over the years to give you some idea of what it was like to live in this fort in 1742. There are 70 people who live inside the fort, three restaurants, and three shops.

As we walked around, we came upon this odd item.






This guy gives you an impression of their statue.

We ate a late lunch at one of the restaurants with me eating a schnitzel and Linda having a very large hamburger. Each entree came with either french fries or roasted potatoes and two potato cakes and a salad. Plenty of food. Linda was seriously considering some pork livers but the frown on our waiter's face dissuaded her.

On our way back to Soest, we encounter what is very normal in Holland: flowers.


















Its obvious that the Dutch feel flowers are important and they go to great pains to make sure they are around.