Estate with House De Breul
From our house on Prinses Marijkelaan we walk along Prinses Margrietlaan. Cross the Arnhemse Bovenweg and then we enter Park De Breul. It is only a 5-minute walk.
Every day I prefer to walk here early in the morning, but in any case outside office hours. No rushing and busy with themselves, with mobile phone in hand, earphones or headphones on and talking loudly and busily with the other person on the other side, not looking and especially not greeting creatures. No peace and quiet and being greeted by the Robin that remains calmly sitting a meter away. Ha, there I hear the Green Woodpecker calling with its characteristic laugh.
When I have reached the pond via a narrow path, Siena and Giulia are allowed to run free. First I turn on the tracker for Giulia because she is very much a hunter. There are squirrels, hares, rabbits and deer here, she is gone in no time and with the tracker I can at least see where she is. I can see from her posture whether there is game present. Head up, looking around and a busy wagging tail? Then she stays on the leash for the first part to the House. Siena is allowed to go loose, because she only follows her sister. I have both of them well under control and they come back on the whistle, but Giulia is very wild and cannot be stopped. She is still young, but I can get that out of her. Fortunately the wolf is not here (yet), it is more towards Austerlitz.
I walk along the meandering path along the pond and regularly sit at the water's edge in the shade and out of sight, under a mighty old oak tree to enjoy the water birds. Grebe, Moorhens, Coots, Greylag Geese, Canadian Geese, Mallards, Mandarin Ducks, Nile Geese, Cormorant, Grey Heron, White Heron, Cape Duck, Mute Swan and Frogs. Every season, day and time the species and the numbers are variable. Look there goes a Kingfisher. Siena and Giulia never go into the water so that the water birds and their young are left alone. My Italians hate water.
When I walk here in this peaceful paradise, I often think of the German-Jewish Amsterdam banker couple Paul May and Rosine Fuld, who lived here before the war. At the outbreak of WWII, they took their own lives in their house in Amsterdam on May 15, 1940, in order to stay out of the hands of the Germans.
Daughter Ellen May, her husband Alexander van Marx and their three children managed to escape to New York via England the day before and fortunately they all survived the war.
The German Luftwaffe confiscated the country estate, looted it and put it into use as an air defense command. A few years ago, the entire library was found in an Austrian monastery and given back to Ellen May.
I walk past the Anne Frank tree to the lawn at the front of the House. Wonderful, that peace and a safe feeling, that water between the Driebergseweg and us. Giulia can also run around freely here.
This Horse Chestnut planted in 2020 is a direct descendant of the Anne Frank tree at the back of the house in Amsterdam and was planted in memory of the above terrible history.
A colorful group of birds can be seen and heard here, what beautiful sounds and what a wonderful sight. The Hawfinch, Nuthatch, Tree Creeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Crossbill, the laughter of the Green Woodpecker, Wood Pigeons, Cave Pigeons, Jackdaws, Crows, Sparrows, Finches, Robins, Winter King, Grey Wagtail, White Wagtail, Blue Tit, Great Tit, etc.
Walking further around the House and to the back, I come across the Roman bridge, turn right and continue my way along the water.
The Roman bridge was built around 1911, possibly by Landscape Architect Leonard Antonie Springer.
On a bench next to an elderly gentleman we silently enjoy the peace, the weather and all this splendor. Then he tells me that he lives opposite in a small house next to Renault Bochane. He used to work at the slaughterhouse and meat factory Gevato as a fat burner (yuck) at Driebergen-Zeist Station.
I remember that during my military service, on my weekly way to 's-Hertogenbosch, I stood at the station, gagging from the enormous stench, waiting for the train to Utrecht Central. Fortunately, the factory where about 320 people worked was closed and moved shortly afterwards.
The older gentleman tells me that he used to secretly sail with his brother in a Jesuit boat on the pond. The priests would walk past there, praying and with the Bible open in their hands. He and his brother would dive flat in the boat and think that the priests would not see them, but the path went around the pond (haha).
And so you meet nice, sweet and also special people with or without a dog while walking. We greet each other and talk to each other now and then. After all, every person matters.
Thanks in part to the purchase, protection, restoration and management of forests and estates by the Utrechts Landschap, we can continue to enjoy all this beauty now and in the future.
Thanks in part to the purchase, protection, restoration and management of forests and estates by the Utrechts Landschap, we can continue to enjoy all this beauty now and in the future.
You can find many more beautiful photos in the gallery of the website.
Zeist is so beautiful and how lucky we are to live here.
Until the next walk at the Molenbosch country estate, Arnie Della Rosa
You can read my walking stories at https://www.als-bomen-en-stenen-konden-praten.com
but also together with the columns of other Zeister columnists at https://www.zeistermagazine.nl