Of men and beasts

Not so long ago, on a cold but sunny Saturday morning, I decided to go a bit further afield than usual for my walk, and drove to the Dunes north of where I live, a wide area, protected because here drinking water is filtered through the sand.

I thought that early on a Saturday morning people would be shopping for food and not out yet for a walk. In that I was totally wrong. The car park was packed and I had to drive three times round it until somebody left and I was lucky to get in first. The dunes there are wide and cover a large area from South to North. Once away from the entrance it wasn’t too crowded at all. Serious walkers with backpacks and sturdy walking boots hike the whole length of this area. Dogs are not allowed, nor bicycles, so it a very nice place for a walk. No noise of traffic, sometimes of planes, but there haven’t been many since the first lockdown. It is a quiet and peaceful place.

There is still snow between the dead bracken after an arctic week,  and this is usually a dry landscape, there are many bog like places and puddles.

I had not only misjudged the number of people, but there was another thing I was wrong about. Some twenty years ago I think, I was walking there when to my utter surprise a deer jumped across the path! I was dumbstruck and quite excited. As a child the dunes were the habitat of rabbits, pheasants and partridges. A deer was very unusual. They belonged to woods and fields, not to dry dunes and sea air. On later walks, looking out for a stray deer, I wasn’t at all lucky. So I hoped to be luckier this time. Little did I know that the dunes are now infested with deer. I almost tripped over them. They are everywhere and quite used to people.

This deer certainly wasn't shy!

The novelty of seeing a deer had gone! Now I was looking out for pheasants and partridges, birds which have completely disappeared from this landscape. Because of the many foxes perhaps, which I never saw there when I was young and growing up next to the dunes more to the south. The dunes and the beach were our backyard. I used to take part in day walks or marches, which were very popular and organized on special days like Ascension Day or the Queen’ s birthday which was a holiday. Groups would take part, but individuals could also do that. You paid a small sum and was awarded with a medal afterwards. Your card was stamped at several posts along the route, where you could also get water.  There were several distances to choose from, some depending on age. I usually walked a distance between 12 and 15 kms, as I was very small for my age and only in primary school. One time I walked 18 kms and was exhausted once I was home. I decided 15 was my limit. The nice thing was that the many impressive country houses which were generally closed to the public and privately owned, built on the border of dunes and wooded or arable land, were open to the walkers. So we might walk through beautiful parkland, which I loved. I still have those medals, plus the little notebook especially made for walkers in which one could jot down anything of interest: what one had noticed or seen during the walk etc. Apparently I counted the pheasants and partridges, being more interested in the pheasants because of the splendid colours of the male. I think they have all disappeared now. The notebooks were stamped by the organization once you had finished the walk.

The openness of the landscape

Also the rabbits have long gone, due to an outbreak of a disease somewhere in the 20^th century, killing most of them. I think they have come back in small numbers, but I did not see any at all. Peculiar how an animal one takes for granted and which was so common, all of a sudden becomes almost an endangered species!

Leiden, an empty town

 The "Hooglandse Kerkgracht" towards the drawbridge

Below left: Towards the Hooglandse Kerk

Last week I had to be in the center of Leiden. It was a dull but mild day. Early spring, the trees still bare waiting for that sign they recognise to open their buds and unfold their leaves. Normally Leiden is bustling with activity, with students, bikes, tourists visiting the many museums Leiden is famous for, the Hortus Botanicus with its special plants, the many picturesque almshouses to mention a few things. On top of a choice of well-known museums, there are two famous churches, as impressive as cathedrals. Leiden moreover can boast of several beautiful  historic pipe organs and a rich organ culture. Walking through Leiden I was struck by its emptiness. The shopping streets deserted, no cafes or restaurant-barges on the Rhine, no music, no students enjoying themselves or cycling to friends or lectures. No people admiring the collections in one of the museums, the prints in the Japan museum, the flowers in the Hortus and the hothouses there. In fact it felt as if the heart of the town had been ripped out. No boats on the many canals either. The town was dead. If it had been midnight, it would have been calming. But in the middle of the day, it filled me with sadness.

The former orphanage on the Hooglandse Kerkgracht

A flower shop which really cheered me up, and which had done its utmost to give its shop and the pavement in front of it a very festive look.

Leaving the center the view of the windmill was also balm to the soul.