WORLDCOOK'S TRAVELS - PUTTEN (The Netherlands)

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Netherlands travel

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Putten is situated on the beautiful Dutch Veluwe. All around are beautiful woods and we have been riding our bicycles endlessly. Putten is mostly famous for what happened in the second World War: on the 1st of October 1944, 600 men were selected and deported to Germany, of which only 48 came back. This was probably a result of the fights that had taken place in the nearby Arnhem, two weeks before that. This fact still throws a faint shadow on this village. Some inhabitants are still in the age, that they can remember it. The region around Putten is a very popular holiday area. One of the attractions we liked was the sheep's' herd in Ermelo. We stayed till late afternoon, to watch the sheep come back to their stable. Nowadays, the herd is run by volunteers and lives from donors. About 150 years ago, many farmers had sheep, for their wool, milk, meat and manure. Cows were often too expensive. Nowadays, this has changed, as the farmers have mainly cows; bio-industry has become popular and the use of chemical fertilizer has become normal; the quantity of free grazing sheep is neglectible. The sheep used to graze the heath land, thus preventing the grass and trees to take over. As the quantity of sheep is diminishing, this problem increases.

The picture underneath was actually not taken in Putten, but in Veendam, Groningen. We had to go there to renew our driving licenses and decided to treat it as a tourist outing. The old Bristol did not make it to Putten as you can see, and had to be towed away unfortunately. We will do anything to make the holiday eventful!