When we stayed in our Star Cubicle last weekend, of course we also explored the area a bit. We were in Twente, a region in the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. Not that far away, but I hadn’t been there before. We had explored the rural area for a bit on Saturday and today it was time to check out Ootmarsum!

Sunday we woke up in our cubicle in a world that had turned white. Snow! It almost never snows in my country so it always feels a bit special when it does. We packed our bags and loaded up the car, out to explore some more before driving home. First stop: Ootmarsum.

Ootmarsum is a little city in Twente, one that I previously never heard of before (though my colleagues did, when I told them about it, so I guess that is mostly me). It’s a cute little town filled with arthouses. Unfortunately, because of the lockdown, all of them were closed, but it was still nice to walk around the city, windowshopping a bit and enjoying the snow and the christmas decorations they hadn’t taken down yet.

Ootmarsum is an old, medieval town that has been around since 1300. Nowadays it’s actually quite touristic, with art gallerys, museums and a siepelmarket (where they sell onions) that attracts tourists three times a year. There actually was an ‘I Love Ootmarsum’ statue in the square, ssomething you usually only see in big cities like Amsterdam, Paris or New York…

Not only are there art galleries everywhere, there’s also a lot of statues and details in the buildings. This billygoat, for instance, represents the end of the yearly carnival that’s held in Ootmarsum. The carnaval is a festival that happens every year (it’s also the reason covid spread so fast last year), for the most parts in the southern parts of the Netherlands, but apparently also in this city. The festival is one big party, 7 days of dressing up and drinking.

Anyhoo, we walked around a bit and took a lot of photo’s because this town is really picturesque. I really loved the otter fountain, though the otter’s feet were a bit creepy as they were very humanlike…

Though it was close to Springendal and we only had to walk a little further on our previous day, I’m glad we skipped it and came back on sunday. It was lovely with all the snow, especially since the gigantic Christmas trees were still up in the square.

We had a lovely walk around the town. I wanna come back here one day to explore all the art galleries after the lockdown is over.