Last Sunday we joined the celebration of the 20th anniversary of one of our favourite corners in #Utrecht: Griftpark. The place is fantastic and after the amazing metamorphosis it went trough 20 years ago, it's definitely a reason for celebration. Right in the city centre of Utrecht it used to be a gas plant. Toluene, benzene and sulfuric acid were in the ground even after the factory was demolished. The area remained empty for a considerable amount of time but after cleaning-up the seriously polluted soil the Municipality of Utrecht decided to re-designate the area into a recreational park. Before the opening in 1999, it was probably the dirtiest and most expensive park in the Netherlands: the construction costed 260 million guilders (about 118 million euros). Nowadays, it's always busy with visitors (with an estimated average of 1300 visitors per day) and festivals (with around 22 festival days a year). This urban green oasis, which even has a hill -quite something in this flat corner of the world-, offers something for everybody: there's a children’s city farm, #Griftsteede, an Environmental District Centre, a space for educational information on nature topics, an incredible playground, a lake (reported by witnesses as favourite location for topless sunbathing of students from the choir...OK....OK....not quite sure why I found this info :) ) and a super cool skate track.
The 'birthday party' was great, with nice music, fab food and drinks. Boys had a blast playing vet with REAL patients! I loved it! They checked the heart of the goat, found out what was wrong with the hen, diagnosed the rabbits, rats and sheep and carefully examined poo's of a variety of patients. They also enjoyed the barefoot trail, checking for flowers and trying edible bits.
Happy 20th #Griftpark, wishing you many many more fun, green and clean years ahead!
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