Let’s explore the Dutch fortified town of HEUSDEN with me ~ Heusden The Netherlands 🇳🇱 little update journey at the end

Shall we stay a bit longer in The Netherlands? 🇳🇱 Of course we do… On my journey back north a week ago -ish. I drove slowly into the Netherlands from Belgium and along the way we just had to stop for some walks and to visit places I hadn’t visited before, while I lived in The Netherlands for many many moons. As our journey is truly far we needed to take enough little breaks.

Come and explore today with me the Fortified Town of HEUSDEN in Noord-Brabant ~ in the Netherlands 🇳🇱
We will wander through its cute streets, see the little harbour, its old houses and discover it has also a few windmills all hidden within the fortified walls and dykes that surround it. Just the shape of this small town is worth looking into.
Don’t miss it…

With this post I’m joining in at the Wednesday Walk #challenge. That is hosted by @tattoodjay every week on Wednesday.
‼️Have a look: Here in the Wednesday Walk Community if you want to join in!… the community is run by @tattoodjay
Look at his last #Wednesdaywalk post. It will tell you also the rules of joining in at the Wednesday walk posts 😁 come join us!

Today’s photographic selection will be of 22 PHOTOGRAPHS
Date : 15 August 2025
The Photographs in this post are taken with my iPhone.
I will follow the time stamps on them. So it looks like you are experiencing my adventures on this walk to #discover everything what I saw, like the little #details seen through my eyes.

Location of the town Heusden we find on the following screenshots of Google Maps :

Look closely at the next screenshot and you will see its fortifications are still so obvious nowadays. Very unique, don’t you think?

More information about this cute fortified town you find on the following websites:
Wikipedia- Heusden! and Visit Brabant - Heusden!

We start on one of the large parking lots outside the town. On our walk over the walking path towards the town itself we have this view. The town lies behind the walls/ dykes and trees… more of itself you can’t see yet.

Just before we reach the town we find some information signs:

The english text on it tells us the following;

HEUSDEN: 'TLANTS STERCKTE'
The Dutch fortified city of Heusden was strategically located on the boundary between the County of Holland and the duchies of Gelre and Brabant. In 1579, during the Eighty Years War, it was decided to fortify the city, with a new surrounding wall and moat, according to a plan drafted by Adriaen Anthonisz van Alcmaer.
The stronghold of Heüsden was further reinforced and extended during the Twelve Year Truce (1609-1621). This caused Heusden to reach its pinnacle of fame and its nickname 'TLANTS STERCKTE, the country's strongest fortress, ensued as a result.
The fortified city lost its military function in the 19th century. The restoration that led to the beautiful modern town of Heusden started in 1968, based on a street plan by Blaeu dating back to 1649.

This street plan you see below 👇🏻

We reached the town and enter. We see right away cute streets with old buildings that are truly well kept.

Luckily there are not many visitors today (even though it is summer holiday season) so most of the street we have all to ourselves. As you know, the way I like it 😊

I zoom in on the beautiful flowers in front of the houses, it makes this street instantly look stunning.

There are a few little shopping streets and the restaurants are not far either.

How can I not capture this #BEE on the wall outside one of the shops. 🐝🐝🐝 I love bees.

We wander further and reach the little harbour. We see the little draw bridge and a mill.

I capture them a bit closer by. I always enjoy seeing mills. What do you think of them?

The other side of the harbour. We see a few boats 🚤

We walk around to cross the draw bridge and see the mill even closer by now. The sky and its clouds make this photo perfect.

Wandering further along the dyke to the right of the first mill, we see another mill. Standing on top of the dyke. Much higher up.

Wandering back down we cross the draw bridge and look back. You see both the windmills if you look closely.

And wander more little streets, over the old cobble stones.

Stunning architecture along the way captures our gaze as we look at all the Dutch architectural details.

When we reach the other side of the town we see this large gate that opens up the dyke that surrounds the town.

Time to wander back inside the town and see a few more streets.

The town itself isn’t large and in a few hours you can walk all its streets and maybe even over the dykes walking paths all the way around. With views of the moat around the town. To see all its monuments and cute shops, this will capture you a bit longer. Of course a meal or at least a drink in one of the restaurants is a must. To see the world go by… slowly.

We wander back to the direction we came from (read entered the town) and I capture the residential streets just outside of the heart of the town.

The other side… so cute.

They are divided by this little river. I don’t know why but the greens were very green this day. It was slightly overcast and the sun tried to come out. It made this street almost like a fairy tale.

We walk over the little bridge and see the other side of the little river.

As we walk back to our cars / vans… we say goodbye.

Little update journey: I am back home. Wooohhoooo after driving almost 6000km in 20 days. I am back in the far far north and delivered our stuff into a storage unit. I needed a few days to recover and breathe… truly breathe again.
Now I am getting organised again, catching up and…, doing laundry and taking care of the garden and make a start to slowly pack the other half of our belongings. Oh yeah, also finish the restorations of the cabin next to it and finding a rental on the other side. I have a timeline for all this, but as you know… my timelines didn’t work out so far as I got sick. So it is a very flexible timeline as I am still recovering and don’t want to overdo it. I hope to leave the far north before the winter hits hard. ❄️☃️
I get the feeling it will this year… be a harsh and early winter. Last winter season started exactly on 1 November with snow for 7 months. Yes we had frost already in September and very cold days way before the snow. I also need to keep in mind, my van doesn’t have winter tires… hahaha the fun parts of moving countries. I tell you soon more and give you some highlights of the journey to move half of our stuff south from this august. And no, I still don’t know where I will end up 🫣

…and here I say that’s all for today’s post my friends.
Join me next time for more updates, adventures, #stories and photographs.
Even my own artworks, once in a while, will come by.
Thank you so much for looking, and reading.

Ecency art by @irisworld

Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.

Have a great day all!
Grtz Jackie

Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble ;) So please don’t use them without my consent.

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If you want to see where I traveled to and what I already shared in @worldmappin formerly known as @pinmapple , have a look at my personal map here:
“LITTLEBEE4’s personal map on WORLDMAPPIN”

!worldmappin 51.73430 lat 5.13854 long Let’s explore the Dutch fortified town of HEUSDEN with me ~ Heusden The Netherlands 🇳🇱 little update journey at the end d3scr