Inbetweenie 2/∞: Veenhuizen, the Netherlands

Kevin’s birthday was coming up, so another opportunity to travel and discover new places was arriving with it as well. Planning to ease the pain of even more wrinkles, reduced mobility and grey hair (and Kevin’s complaining about this), we were in desperate need of finding a good place to forget about the worries of aging. What better way to find the ideal spot than not knowing where you’re going yourself (this does provide you with the excuse that you didn’t choose the location if it would be a disappointment)?
So, that’s exactly what we did: let someone else choose our destination (in this case srprs.me) and just go along with it. And a good choice this was…
 
On the day of our departure, Kevin got to scratch away a code on a card to reveal our first destination (where we would get our final instructions). This led us to the wonderful neighbouring country… the Netherlands! After a three-hour drive, we reached the north of the country, more specifically a place called Meppel. Here we got to open the last envelope that revealed our final destination: Veenhuizen.
 
Veenhuizen is a small village that is mostly known for its asylum (or as it is also called: prison, penitentiary institution… well… a place for naughty/crazy people). The town was completely isolated from the rest of the country until 30 years ago. After being opened to the public, several prison buildings, worker’s houses, etc. were renovated and reformed into a museum and a hotel. And that’s exactly where we were going: the old asylum hotel, ‘Bitter & Zoet’!
 
Creepy as it may have looked when we first read this, we were very excited to see this unique place. When we arrived, we were immediately stunned by the beautiful nature this small town offered (the typical Dutch canals, forest drives and flat meadows never disappoint).
The prison area (in lack of a better description) was a feast to our eyes: lots of green, few people, neatly structured, symmetrical buildings and a somewhat eerie – though positive – atmosphere. Once again, it was made clear that our near-autistic personalities are in need of a different environment (or you could just say that we belong in a mental institution).
 
The hotel consists of the former hospital, pharmacy and apothecary’s house and is surrounded by the worker’s houses. The fact that every building has its own name, such as ‘devotion’ and ‘sense of duty’ gives it all an extra special - for some perhaps creepy - feeling.
We were lucky to get a room under the roof (with a bath, so happy Andy) which was cosy and had a very 1940’s psycho-horror movie bathroom (don’t get us wrong, we loved this, gave it all an extra dimension).
The old hospital part of the hotel has been renovated into a spa and sauna (which we unfortunately didn’t get to use) and the hotel also has its own restaurant which was absolutely awesome.

After exploring the hotel’s surroundings and learning more about the prison/penitentiary history, we decided it was time to hop on a bike (another included surprise – next to a dinner in the restaurant – of srprs.me (how cool is that!)) and see what mother nature had to offer.
As mentioned before, the Dutch nature doesn’t disappoint easily: they are true artists with canals and blend these in wonderfully with nature preservations, agriculture (tulips weren’t blooming yet, though) and residential areas.

​But we’ll let the pictures show you what we mean (although it’s always better in real life).

In conclusion, it was a very nice birthday weekend (Kevin’s old-age complaints were reduced to a minimum) and we were very happy with our srprs.me experience (nice way to lose one’s srprs.me virginity).
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If you’d ever consider visiting the Netherlands and love to walk or bike, Veenhuizen is certainly a place to put on your list!