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Welcome to the “Georgia Wasp…”

This blog is modeled on the Carolina Israelite. That was an old-time newspaper – more like a personal newsletter – written and published by Harry Golden. Back in the 1950s, people called Harry a “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.” (For his work on the Israelite.)

That’s now my goal as well. To be a “voice of sanity amid the braying of jackals.”

For more on the blog-name connection, see the notes below.

In the meantime:

August 1, 2026 – I’m taking a break from doing posts about my two-week driving trip last May in Ireland. This post will preview an adventure that’s coming up later this month.

My brother, his wife and I will be hiking 140 miles on the GR-5. It starts at the Hook of Holland in the Netherlands and crosses Belgium and Luxembourg before moving into France. (The “GR” stands for a series of long-distance walking trails throughout Europe; the translations in various languages generally mean “‘long trail’ or more literally ‘great route.'”) The whole GR-5 runs over 700 miles and ends up in Nice, France, on the Mediterranean coast, but we’re only going as far as Maastricht. (And to get there we’ll hike through Belgium for not quite two weeks.)

For starters: I’ll fly over and spend four days in Amsterdam. Two of those days I’ll be on my own, then I’ll meet up with my brother and his wife. (Flying into Paris and taking the train over from there.) After those two family days we’ll take the train to “Hoek van Holland,” spend the night there and start the hike the next day. (BTW: For what to do those four days see The Ultimate 3-Day Amsterdam Itinerary (By A Local). One idea? Beers & Barrels on Rembrandtplein.)

Another idea? The Heineken Experience, close to the Albert Cuypmarket:

This tour gives you access to the old brewery and the first brew room, where the beer was produced before the company grew too big and moved elsewhere. You’ll learn everything about Heineken and end up on the roof terrace where you can enjoy two beers, included in the tour. With your I Amsterdam City Card you get a 25% discount, but tours must be booked with your card in advance.

By the way, according to the 3-Day itinerary site, a “72-hour I Amsterdam City Card costs €100 ($110) and fits perfectly with this three-day itinerary. It saves you money in the end. It includes public transport within the city, free entry to a lot of museums, a free canal cruise and a free one-day bicycle rental.” Plus you get a 25% discount to the Heineken Experience. (The City Card site says you can get a three day card for much less, though without the discounts?)

But enough about that; on to the hike itself. From Hook of Holland we’ll pass through Rozenburg, Brielle, Hellevoetsluis, Goedereed and Herkingen. There we’ll stay two nights – and enjoy a day off. After that first day off, we pass through Tholen, Bergen op Zoom, then on to Kalmthout in Belgium. Passing through Belgium, we’ll go through Brecht and Zorsel; there for two nights and a second day off. From there we hike to Herentals, Herselt, Testelt and Diest, still in Belgium, where we’ll have our third day off. (Hey, I’m 75 and my brother is 81.) From there we hike to Huesden Zolder, Stokrooie, Vlaandern, Zutendaal, and finally Lanaken, our last day in Belgium.

On our last day hiking we’ll get back into Holland and end up at Maastricht. After two days there – recuperating – we’ll part ways. My hiking partners will take the train to Paris and then fly home. I’ll take the train up to Arnhem and stay for one night, then head back to Amsterdam. I’ll spend one night there, then fly home to Atlanta. And now for some specifics.

The first 93 miles in Holland – down to the Belgian border near Bergen op Zoom – start off with a diverse landscape of expansive dunes and maritime forests along the Zeeland islands.

The first day’s hike ends in Rozenburg, after 13 miles. (One of our longest days?) It’s on Rozenburg Island, “formed centuries ago from several sand bars in the mouth of the river Maas.” (Aka the Meuse.) Our spreadsheet says it’s 13 miles, but Google Maps says it 13 kilometers or 8.3 miles. Either way it’s mostly flat along the river, plus there’s a ferry. (Says Google.)

I’ll report back on that when I get home, but here’s a note from experience. The Google-Map way usually follows highways, as I found out hiking the Canterbury Trail last year. (See Clackett Lane to Dunton Green: “That Google Map way led to series of near-death experiences, in the form of cars zipping by at high speeds with little or no room on the side of the road.”)

And all this for a total of 23 days on the trail; 20 hiking and three days off in between.

Now back to the specifics. After Rozenburg we’ll hike 6.5 miles to Brielle, a historic seaport “on the north side of the island of Voorne-Putten, at the mouth of the New Maas.” And again, our spreadsheet differs from the Google Maps, which says 4.8 miles. (One possible reason: Google tracks its maps from one center of a town to the center of another, while our spreadsheet is based on “lodging to lodging.”) Also, Brielle is on the far outskirts of Rotterdam.

From Brielle we hike to Hellevoetsluis, “with the sea, beach and dunes close by.” It features “2,000 mooring places, spread over five harbours. With such a broad expanse of water as the Haringvliet and the North Sea close by, it is popular with water sports lovers.” And yet again there’s a discrepancy in mileage, but we’ll end up north of town, close to where the N57 bridge crosses the Haringvliet. That’s a large inlet of the North Sea and “an important estuary of the Rhine-Meuse delta.” (Our spreadsheet says that day’s hike is 13.6 miles.)

From Hellevoetsluis it’s 6.2 miles to Goedereede. In the Middle Ages it was an important trading town with ramparts, and the name means “safe harbor” or safe anchorage. And to get there we’re apparently going to have to walk across that N57 bridge? (For quite a ways it looks like.) And for once Google Maps is close to our estimate.

That’s also true of the next day’s hike, to Herkingen, where for the first time we head south, instead of north or west. (Actually south-southeast.) Herkingen itself is a village in the Dutch province of South Holland, “on the south coast of the island Goeree-Overflakkee, in the municipality of Goeree-Overflakkee.” (And Goeree-Overflakkee is a delta island, the largest island by land area in the Netherlands after the man-made Flevopolder.”)

In Herkingen we stay two nights – and enjoy our first day off from hiking. One note: “The town of Herkingen currently hosts several of the largest modern windmills in the country.” Something to look forward to, exploring, along with “several pubs and cafés that provide a cozy atmosphere and local cuisine.” Next up, on to Tholen, Bergen op Zoom, and on Kalmthout in Belgium.

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The upper image is courtesy of the Ultimate 3-Day Amsterdam Itinerary.

The link GR®5 the Netherlands notes: “The GR®5 in the Netherlands covers approximately 93 miles (155km) from Hook of Holland to the Belgian border near Bergen op Zoom. This route traverses a diverse landscape of expansive dunes, maritime forests, and the impressive Delta Works along the Zeeland islands.” The link GR5: NL section – Into the hike adds:

This is the first section of GR5, beginning in Hoek van Holland, a town next to the North sea, and ending in Bergen op Zoom. As Caroll Dorgan describes in his guidebook, the altitude change is negligible, but if you think it’s a boring hike, well, think again. I was amazed by the beauty of the coastal Netherlands, the friendliness of people I’ve met and the variety of fauna on the trail. This was also my first multi-day hike alone, earning a special place in my heart. 

The lower image is courtesy of Herkingen – Wikipedia. Another note: The place “offers several pubs and cafés that provide a cozy atmosphere and local cuisine.”

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Re:  The Israelite.  Harry Golden grew up in the Jewish ghetto of New York City, but eventually moved to Charlotte, North Carolina.  Thus the “Carolina Israelite.”  I on the other hand am a “classic 74-year-old “WASP” – White Anglo-Saxon Protestant – and live in north Georgia.  Thus the “Georgia Wasp.”    

Anyway, in North Carolina Harry wrote and published the “israelite” from the 1940s through the 1960s.  He was a “cigar-smoking, bourbon-loving raconteur.”  (He told good stories.) That also means if he was around today, the “Israelite would be done as a blog.”  But what made Harry special was his positive outlook on life.  As he got older but didn’t turn sour, like many do today.  He still got a kick out of life.  For more on the blog-name connection, see “Wasp” and/or The blog.

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