De Klaverhof

Weblog Klaverhof week 16 19-4-2009

Easter Monday to Valkenburg. First some pictures of the views from the hotel.

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South

West

North

We take the bus to Gulpen and then transfer onto another one to Schin Op Geul. From there the whole group follows the river Geul downstream. We cross the river just before castle Schaloen. Apparently in previous years it was possible to have a cup of coffee on the terrace, but now it's closed. The owner tells us that he can't find good staff anymore and had enough of the customer complaints. He is now looking for an entrepreneur who wants to operate the terrace as an independent company. Currently his family only runs the hotel facilities and restaurants. It looks like a mammoth job compared to running the Klaverhof…..

We take a bite and water break and watch the carp in the moat. "They eat only noble biscuits" said the owner...

The group splits up and Merel takes the slowpokes on the direct route along the river to Valkenburg, while I take the rest on a longer hike. We decide to meet again at the large stone in Valkenburg, near the tourist office. It sounds vague enough if you have never been there. The trip is still on the short side, so I make an extra detour. First, over a plateau, then we hit some "hollow roads" and finally through the woods. Pretty nice trails by the way, and quite a few hikers. We saw at least 20 to day.

After lunch in the sunshine along the road we come along a small cave. As we climb towards it to have a look, we find it fenced off. This may have been a flint mine. At the entrance is a small not exploitable layer….. Even for the prehistoric man. We arrive in Valkenburg near the cableway where one can take a cart to the top and then toboggan down. We go down a long flight of stairs along the cable car and arrive in the city.

In Valkenburg it's extremely crowded. In the main shopping street you just about need your elbows to get through… total madness!! All terraces are full. I have great difficulties shooting the picture on the right with only a few tourists in my shot. We walk to the spot where according to map the VVV is located and then indeed, one can't miss the "Big Rock". The thing is more than man-sized. We agree to meet here again at a fixed time and then all disperse to do their own thing. For me a beer on a terrace! Near the VVV is a bar that can use a few more customers. Later I walk with a few others to the "Thermen", to investigate if it's worth a visit on our free Friday. The "Cauberg" road is really steep! And loads of cyclists. They go downhill extremely fast in spite of a curve at the bottom behind which people are crossing the road. It must be OK; otherwise something would have been done about it.

Around half past three I take the bus to Maastricht. I have a great train connection and I'm home for supper. I work Tuesday and go straight to Epen after work. Lucia isn't home, so no point to take the milk run to Heeze. It is at best a hassle in Eindhoven to catch the Intercity to Maastricht. It is very busy, and from platform 1 one has to go down stairs, through a tunnel and up again to platform 6. I have only 4 minutes, and 30 seconds to spare... I arrive in Maastricht at the wrong time to get a good bus connection in Gulpen. I have some French fries and look around the village while waiting for the connecting bus to Epen. In the Bloeiende Berg dinner is almost over however I join in for dessert.

On Wednesday the walk goes Southbound through the valley of the Geul into Belgium. Direct from the hotel we walk to Epen where we find the Geul. The valley is very wide here. In better times, the Geul must have been a big river with sufficient power to carve a wide valley. We walk across the fields and meet these ducks.

After some time we arrive at the Volmolen. It was formerly in use to "full", the stamping of woven woollen fabric into felt. Later, and still sometimes in operation today, the mill functions as a grain mill. We see how the capacity of the mill can be adjusted through the water volume in the bypass.

Drain of superfluous overtollig water back to the river

We continue through beautiful meadows along the Geul to the Belgian border which was a bit hard to find.

In Sippenaeken we have a rest and a drink on a terrace. Merel is picked up by Tom, who likes this opportunity to drive his grandfather's old army Jeep. The rest of us go on.

First, a very boring stretch along a paved road in Belgium and then into the fields again. We walk across open hills. We have our lunch along a road with a beautiful view over castle Beusdaal and the white flowering trees in the woods.

Further on we re-enter the Netherlands. When we cross the Julianastraat near hotel Krijtland it starts to rain. It's not much but enough to don our rain gear.

It really rains sometimes in The Netherlands too.

Later, we pass a cute white house with a flowering magnolia, which overlooks a beautiful meadow with a natural pond in it. Later Lidwien told me that it only recently was sold and that she had considered the purchase. However, without water and electricity, it's maybe only something for true nature lovers. Some narrow trails lead us directly back to the hotel.

The house overlooks a beautifull meadow having a pond and surrounded by flowering trees .

Thursday we go along the Gulp instead of the Geul. This river is situated slightly more to the West. We take the path behind the hotel and I miss the start of the trail through the fields and must backtrack about 100 meters. Good that we did, otherwise we would have missed this lovely pony and this beautiful path. It is so narrow that you really must watch not to get caught in the barbed wire ... The ridge behind the pony is the Schweiberg on which our Hotel, The Bloeiende Berg, is located.

We now enter the woods. This is the trunk of one of the white flowering trees in the woods. Notice the horizontal bands in the trunk. We think that it is a wild cherry.

We climb up and pass along the golf course enjoying the beautiful views across ploughed fields.

In the next village we stop for a drink at hotel Gerardushoeve; newly built but in the style of an old Limburg farm with a centre courtyard.

Our coffee comes in strange asymmetric cups. Definitely not practical for lefties.

Opposite the hotel we walk along the fields and then descend back into the valley of the Gulp on a steep path more resembling a river bed… thankfully it is dry today!! Without a clear sign of the continuation of the trail, I decide to go cross country along the Gulp and remove a barbed wire fence for easy access. Of course we put it back together again. At some points, the banks of the Gulp are very steep and more than 10 m high. Also this river is much smaller and meanders more than the Geul. We have lunch on a peninsula formed by a loop of the river. The meadows are full of Pentecostal flowers.

Lunch on a thick branch which fell from the tree.

The field is covered in pink "Pinkster bloemen" or cuckoo-flowers.

It is not easy to get a good picture of the meanders of this river… On the other picture there are three, but that is almost invisible

On the following peninsula is a collapsed willow, still alive.

"Doline" near the path	Beautiful open deciduous forest
	We continue a bit across the high plateau and then get back into the forest. An information panel provides some interesting details about the area. The substratum is of limestone and nature has formed so called "dolines". These funnel-shaped cavities on the surface indicate the existance of a cave. The upper part of a cave in that cases has lost such an amount of rock, that caving in results. Less than 100 meters, I think there is one close to the path. The trail follows through very open woodland with beautiful old deciduous trees. It could be the "Liesbos" back home. Following the edge of the woods we arrive back at the little white house overlooking the meadow with the pond. The cows appear in the same place, but the blue heron has disappeared. That was apparently a real one. The meadow to the left of the path is completely yellow and covered in dandelions. Back at the hotel we have time for a drink at the bar. We have earned it today. I go back and take the Hurpesch bus 57 along the border route to Maastricht. French Fries in Smullers and the intercity to Breda with a transfer in Eindhoven. Home at 8 p.m.

	There too are some trees that have sprung into flower. A "vogelkers" grows next to the ditch. We must keep in mind that we do not accidentally remove this one as it grows a bit crooked. Saturday I make the first floor sections for the balcony. It's a bit tricky with the width difference in the front and the back, but I manage to invisibly correct this issue. Also today, we discover a newly born black lamb in the meadow. She seems smaller than last year's model, but that isn't so after we check her weight. It's a ewe and that's nice. Kari is still quite sick. The vet has checked all the sheep for worms but they don't have them. She thinks they are all too skinny, which one can feel by checking their spine. There isn't enough muscle bulk next to it. However, the ewes are the proper weight, according to an Internet site on Quessant sheep. The rams are normally a bit heavier; Njord is, but Kari is not.