Thursday, 27 March 2014

Standing Stones and the Funnel Beaker Culture

I'm partial to a standing stone. Close to where we live in the UK there is Avebury, and a little farther away there is Stonehenge. Very close to us indeed are the Stanton Drew Stone Circles - and these are, believe it or not, the third largest collection of prehistoric standing stones in England! It only seemed natural then, having spotted some prehistoric monuments indicated along the route that we were taking from Amsterdam to Gronigen, that I would want to stop and explore.

We didn't know what flavour of standing stones we were about to see, but as it turns out they were 'Hunebedden' - which are megalithic tombs. They were built by the 'Funnel Beaker People' in what is now the Netherlands about 5000 years ago. Having chosen our camping place we set out on our electric bikes to explore. Being so flat, we hardly needed the electric part of the bikes at all - but it is always nice to know that you can rely on them to bring you back home if/when your legs give out, or you get really tired. They have a range of at least 20km, so that is more than enough for most of our trips.




The area that we were in was named Drenthe. We chose to stay at a camp site named 'Camping De Lente van Drenthe', which was very nice, and quiet as it was coming to the end of the season. We found a corner of a field and camped up. It was a little damp as it was now about half way through September. We caught the tail end of a Volkswagen Camper Rally - there were only about three vans left. Their owners were friendly enough, and we exchanged a few words on the way to and from the toilet block. This block was, incidentally, excellent! Warm and clean with good hot free showers. Most recommended.The site is almost buried in the forest, and surrounded by lots of good cycling terrain - both on and off road. 



One other thing about the site at that time of year was the abundance of fungi to be seen. It was everywhere and of all varieties. If only I had taken a book on edible fungi with me... (I'm going to buy one now, so it can live in the van along with the bird and tree identifier books).


We cycled around the area a fair bit. In one part of the forest we came across a recreation area, complete with a beach and swimming lake! Bet it's great in the summer. There were quite a few people there enjoying the autumn sunshine, though the water was a bit cold to venture into - for me anyway. 



After a great time in The Netherlands we decided to move on to Germany - heading for Denmark.


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