As a child, I loved going to themeparks. Actually, I still do, but this is a trip down memory lane, so that doesn’t really matter right now. We’ve been to the Efteling a lot, but another theme park we often went to, mostly on schooltrips, was Het Land van Ooit, which roughly translates as ‘The land of Ever’. Which is super ironic, because it’s completely empty now. A wasteland. The park went bankrupt a couple years ago. I hadn’t really thought about it anymore, but recently I came across an article that said the park was now open to visitors. Naturally, I couldn’t wait to go!

These used to be fountains. It was called ‘Soldaten te water’ (soldiers on the water). The water is now taking over by reeds and very loud frogs. I didn’t realize they were frogs at first. I wondered at why they were being so loud, until boyfriend told me it must be mating season. Ah…

Anyway, some parts of the park were a bit spooky, like the soldiers. It felt like a ghost town. I was glad to see that some other parts of the theme park were still there, such as the blue painted bridges and fences. The blue paint was scaled off a bit, but you can still get a sense of how it used to look.

But most of it was gone. When the park went bankrupt, they cleared it and only few parts of what once was remained. Instead, nature got a chance to come out and play.

Out trip down memory lane became more of a lovely walk in a park where not a lot had happened in a couple of years. It’s nice to see how nature took over. It’s wild and untamed and absolutely stunning.

One of my favourite parts of the park, was the gigantic cotton-candy pink castle in the middle of the park. It’s still there, but it’s being renovated. I read somewhere that they’re gonna build houses in the park, but the castle will stay. I’m not sure what function it will have. I could have taken some pictures but the castle had none of it’s former glory. It has been stripped of its amazing color and was surrounded by scaffolding. I hope they will paint it pink again!

Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon. It wasn’t as much of a ghosttown as I hoped it would be, but we had fun nonetheless. It’s great to see what happens if nature decides to take over!