Saturday 9 May

A very late posting today, but I've been reasonably busy. First of all, I went to town to buy a few bits and pieces for taking back to Stornoway on Monday. I also bought some roses, which I left on my mother's grave in the afternoon. The ones I left there a week ago were wilting. Afterwards, I went with my father on a walk round the Heathlands.

It was a nice, sunny afternoon with a breeze. Not overly warm. We first went to the Emma Pyramid, a look-out tower built in the 1920s as a work generation scheme at the time of the depression.

You can look southeast, across the Rhine river valley all the way into Germany. The city of Kleve can be discerned in the distance. Its Dutch neighbour, Nijmegen, is closer by, marked by the bulk of the power plant that lies on the riverfront there. Hidden amongst the trees is a small memorial to a dozen young men, aged between 19 and 35, who were summarily executed by Nazi forces in December 1944. They were remembered in a small ceremony last Monday.



We then wound our way to the Watchtower, a look-out post manned until 1960 to spot heathland fires. Spotter planes were used from that year onwards, but the Watchtower (Brandtoren in Dutch) was restored a few years ago. You cannot go to the top level (too dangerous), only to the first. We returned home just before 4pm, by which time the sun had disappeared behind high- and medium-level clouds.

More pictures here.