Netherlands

Heritage, prisons and craftmanship

We’re enjoying Drenthe quite a bit! The time we took for sightseeing might be to short to see all that we want to see and it turns out there is so much fun stuff to see and do here.

Our next best thing of “things to do” on our list was the prison museum in Veenhuizen. This small village was home to the most secure prison in the Netherlands up to 2007. They dedicated one of the buildings as a museum which focusses on the prison system in the Netherlands, starting in the middle ages up to the present day.

We booked a guided tour through the part of the prison called “De rode pannen” (The red roofings) which was the most secure part of the prison. The most severe criminals and prisoners here were stripped of all luxury. They had a bed, some cloths, a toilet and a sink. This was the case even up untill the late 2000’s. The tour was impressive. A former warden hosted the tour and that was a very nice contribution. You could see this guy had seen some stuff.

Wildervank

Ellen’s family on her mother’s side has their roots here up north aswell. Her great-great-great grandfather was very successfull with peat extraction and made quite a name for himself. He even built a church for his wife! They named a small town after him and they called it Wildervank. We had to visit this and see this church for ourselves.

We were glad we stopped by, because of the impression it left on Ellen.

Orvelte

There are some old buildings in Orvelte. Over the years there haven’t been any changes of time. We think this village is probably the most well known tourist attraction in Drenthe. We visited one of the attractions. A guide showed us many crafts. He showed us the making of wooden shoes, introduced us to a sawmill that was used the beginning of the 1900’s and preformed some smith craft. It was most fun than we anticipated. We also enjoyed walking around in this small town and we had the most delicious apple pie, which was worth the trip alone.

There are only a few most days here in Drenthe. We are planning to do some more hiking and seeing some more of Drenthe’s nature. See you soon!

Links

Gevangenis Museum: https://www.gevangenismuseum.nl/

Wildervank: https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildervank

Orvelte: https://orvelte.net/

Where are we and where are we going?

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