October, 2015
This time, I am going to Voorne Putten, South of Rotterdam and close to the province of Zeeland. For 9 days I will take care of a cat and a dog, in a house surrounded by greenhouses with tomatoes and cucumbers.
For the last couple of months, I took care of Chinese Shar-Pei dogs, Flat Coat Retrievers, Labradors, Corgis and others and now I will look after a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, a very interesting dog. Very strong and sometimes a little bit naughty, but so sweet and funny.
He loves going out into the dunes and there are enough of those in Voorne Putten! It is a very interesting area, with on one side the view of the harbour of Rotterdam and the newly built Maasvlakte 2.
On the other side, there are endless opportunities to hike in between agriculture fields, over the dunes and beaches and even through new landscaped areas. Above all, you can visit Brielle and Hellevoetsluis, both towns with a lot of history and each with its own charm. In Hellevoetsluis my daughter was born and of course I have to visit and witness the positive changes in the old centre. It is 25 years ago that we lived here for around 4 years and we enjoyed living in this town by the water, until we moved to Greece.
The lighthouse is still a favourite spot to enjoy the sunset and even at this time of the year, people are still sailing on the “Haringvliet”.
Brielle is a “one of a kind” town, where many events took place in the past and consists of fortresses, a former prison, the St. Catharine church, an orphanage and lots of monuments from the 17th century.
Interesting is also the Asylum square, where you will find a beautiful building, which was used as a nursery for the sick, old and poor sailors.
These days, the word Asylum is used again for another group……..
Another interesting visit is Futureland at the Maasvlakte 2. From the beauty of the historical towns, back to the reality of 2015 and even beyond, as the Maasvlakte is still in progress. At Futureland you will learn all about the development of the new harbour, with its fully automatic container terminal. Also, you will learn how this harbour was made, by using 240 million cubic sand from the bottom of the sea. There are possibilities to tour around the harbour by bus or boat or even have a future flight experience in the centre itself.
I enjoy my house sit in this part of the Netherlands, which is so totally different than the centre or the East. Here you are also close to Zeeland, with the “Deltawerken”, definitely worth a visit!
With a few more days to go, I will get the opportunity to visit some of the most remarkable villages of the province of Zeeland; Zierikzee and Veere.
