Walk in the forest

Utrecht, actually Bilthoven where Anita lives.

The weather was crap, we were feeling really tired and it seemed like a good idea to take a drive north across Holland to the little town of Bilthoven near Utrecht and pay a visit to our old friend (who is actually not all that old) Anita Gude.

Anita plays viola for the Dutch ballet orchestra and we originally met her when we enrolled our two girls in the Wellington saturday music school, so that they could become future virtuoso musicians just like the hundred or so other eight year olds who were there escorted by their doting parents.

Anita did her best to teach violin to Sarah, the friendship blossomed, unlike the music and we have managed to keep in touch for all these years.

Anita lives in a huge apartment building set in the middle of a forest. It is actually a converted old peoples home in it’s own beautifully kept grounds and she has an attic apartment on the fifth floor with a view of the squirrels in the surrounding trees. (Our first sighting of a squirrel).

This whole area is absolutely stunning with unbelievably beautiful houses complete with thatched roofs dotted around amongst the mature forest.

The Dutch royal family live in this region and one of the Royal residence is just down the road.

We walked through deciduous forests with the blush of spring green airbrushed through their winter branches and saw our second squirrel, known to the Dutch as an “acorn”.

We had lunch in a restaurant that was once a railway station for the Royal family, (yes I asked the same question, “why did the royal family have to catch trains?”) and spent the night at Anita’s apartment.

Organic farm we visited

She really is one of this worlds truly sweet people and anyone who can get to Amsterdam during May to see her perform for the ballet “Giselle” would be in for a real treat. Go there people!