We drove the short distance from Otterlo to Zwolle, stopping at this spot overlooking the Veluwe, a forest-rich region in the province of Gelderland, which sounds like a place from the Wizard of Oz. Maybe it’s just me.
This is outside the Veluwe National Park. This platform gives you an excellent view over the area, which has a very distinct appearance.
You’d expect to see a beach nearby, but we are a hundred miles from the nearest ocean. It does look a bit like the landscape for Planet of the Apes though!
Really beautiful trees amongst the sand dunes. You can see why they built the viewing platform here!
On the advice of “Amsterdammer” from the Trip Advisor forum, we also stopped at Zandsculpturen Garderen, which is a huge outdoor supply store that also has an incredible number of wood and sand sculptures. The wood sculptures are free to view, but the intricate sand sculptures require an admission fee.
This elephant looks to be made completely out of driftwood.
I love the monkey on the cell phone.
As well as the monkey holding the lamp.
This bench has quite the setting!
You can’t be in the Netherlands and not include Van Gogh in your work.
These Dutch figures were everywhere around the country, but never as large as here!
The sand sculptures cover a lot of topics, but most of them are related to Dutch history. The detail is amazing. A lot of it deals with 16th and 17th history. There is an audio guide available in English. Outside of that, everything is in Dutch.
This depicts the Dutch past as a major maritime influence, which continues today. Rotterdam is the largest container port in Europe.
There are numerous depictions of WWII events.
The Dutch celebrating being liberated by the Allied forces.
Even Van Gogh makes an appearance. Imagine that!
They are actively working on new sculptures. Very talented artists, and fun to watch how easy they make it all look.
Next up, the city of Zwolle, Netherlands.