The day was bright, the sun was mellow and the leaves came tumbling down..... It was again time for a short trip. This time to visit this country's smallest town. A village where almost every building is a protected monument. It is picturesque to say the least. The name of the village is Bronckhorst. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronkhorst You can read about this village and klik on some pics. On the way to the hotel, we took a hike in the woods to look at mushrooms. Problem was that because of the dryness, there were still so few to see. Oh well, it was good to walk about in nature. Hereafter we visited some friends in Zutphen and ate with them. It was a yummy meal and the lady's partner and I chatted about gardening and other important subjects. The next day we headed out taking the small roads to a place that had an orchid display and a butterfly house. http://www.orchideeenhoeve.com/ If this link does not open in English just look in the upper right-hand corner and klik on the British flag. It was a nice place, but I found that most of the orchids had bloomed out and so there was a meagre showing. Pity, that. Never mind, the path through the "Tropical Jungle", Butterfly House and the hanging gardens room were impressive enough. I shall show a few piccies below. One of the first places that we found interesting was the large Lorikeet enclosure. This piccy shows one of the feeding stations, with a background mural featuring the Ayers Rock. (Do you remember that, Ronni?) Those birds are gorgeous. I remember seeing them in their hundreds when I was touring Oz. Here, take another look at them--Rainbow Lorikeets: Walking through the Tropical Jungle section there were monkeys, water turtles and loose-flying birds to see....oh yes, and huge fish, of course. Then the butterfly house. Well, it was not chock-a-block full of butterflies, but there were quite a few and they were lilting about. The feeding stations had a few on them, but the rest were either on the wing, or resting on a leaf. Some rested on me. Another giant specimen: Oh, I really do enjoy a butterfly house, where the insects are nor shy or frightened by the guests. The last section that we visited was the Hanging Gardens area. I could describe it, but I shall just show a couple of pics that speak for themselves. That pic was one of the pools in this magnificent place---floating flowers, mirrors of the wall and Surfinias galore. The mirrors increased the effect of abundance. I sort of thought that this looked like a living Monet painting. The next foto shows one of these dabbling pools with a fountain in it. A general view of the café area. Well, it was a short excursion, but it felt like a two-week trip. I can still almost perceive the heady smell of the Surfinia's there.
What a wonderful way to spend a few hours. Your photographs are amazing - especially the ones of the hanging gardens and the fountains. I could picture myself sitting in the café enjoying all the surrounding beauty. I loved the pictures of the butterflies and parakeets - so colourful and real pleasure to see. Thanks for sharing your leisure time with us all.
Oh EILEEN you are too welcome. I am glad that you liked them. It was nice there. Yeah, I really liked the area with all the hanging baskets and fountain ponds.
I'm fascinated about how they maintain the hanging gardens. It really is a sight to see. Thanked for sharing your excursion with us Sjoerd!
Cheers WARE---I thought of you in that butterfly house. Me too, FRANK---It is some job for the caretakers, that's for sure. Thanks LI--it was a nice place. It was great for us, but I could see that it would be a fun place for kids as well. Like they said--it is a place for people of all ages.
WOW....I would love to see the café in person...I most likely would spend most of my time looking at all of them. We have a butterfly house at the Milwaukee zoo, at least they had it years ago. Thank you for your vacation tour, I really enjoy you showing us all of the interesting areas.
Hello Sherry--I know what you mean. We spent quite a while there at the end of our tour and it really was impressive to see...and SMELL. I think that anyone would like this place. I was amazed to see that there were so many painted turtles in all the ponds there.
