PreHistorischdorp 10/11-5-2025

Last weekend I went to PreHistorischdorp in Eindhoven and it was amazing! PreHistorischdorp is an outdoor museum that shows multiple time periods, it is full of amazing volunteers and beautiful buildings. They have many theme weekends, like Vikingfest in June. I'll leave a link down below!

The longhouse we stayed at.

Friday evening right after work we drove 1,5 hours to Eindhoven. When we arrived we were shown where we could choose a sleeping spot; alongside the left wall of the longhouse. The sleeping spots were off the ground with straw sacks as mattresses. The first night was ruff because my straw sack was lumpy. But the next night was better when I shook the straw loose and this made the bed a lot softer.

The way the longhouse is build, sets the sleeping spots along the wall, next to the fireplace or kitchen. This setup is really nice, so you can be warmed by the fireplace. If you sleep next to it of course, we slept far from it this time. Also because it was really warm outside. And we had a lot of blankets and sheepskins. Being in the farm felt so nice and calming. The open space, but yet so cozy made me really happy!

Our sleeping space.

Saturday morning I made millet porridge with honey, apple and cranberries. After breakfast we got ready for the visitors. Hiding all the plastic and other modern stuff.

For lunch I helped Helga with making knoedels for the stew. We made the knoedels with flour and butter, a splash of water and cut up parsley. After kneading we rolled them into balls, 24 to be exact so everyone could have one in their bowl. The stew contained carrots, leek, split peas, sage, rosemary, chicken and millet. It was delicious! Helga had outdone herself!

After lunch we went back to playing board games and I ended up helping at the archery range. They also asked me if I would return there to help. I did like helping with instructing archery, but it felt too fast for me. I rather take my time while doing it. There were just too many people, it would take hours.

After closing hours we had a bread meal for dinner. We did some archery too. There was a small range next to the longhouse. Someone else was shooting there too, so we had fun talking about bows and arrows and such. Then I joined a group who wanted to play reversed hide and seek, the goal is to find whoever is hidden and hide with them. Last to find everyone is the one who has to hide next. It was a lot of fun. At one point we had to all hide in a well...! We did not fit. But there were a lot of laughs.

The heart of the longhouse.

Sunday morning after a well nights rest, we were awoken by a goose, who had made his life's purpose of sitting on the roof and screaming. Many of us woke by his honking and plotted against it. I thought about getting my bow, but I had no non-lethal arrows so I would have never went trough with it. Something about losing my archery privilege. Then I spend the day sitting in the shadow doing crafts with the others. I started making a new pair of socks! They were almost done at the end of the day. But sadly my blue wools are almost gone, so I'll have to use another color too finish them. (I had some creme wool at home that matched perfectly!)

Around three in the afternoon the medieval pottery oven got opened, and they personally came to collect me to see the results! The day before they had fired it all day, and then it had to cool down. For it to cool down they also had to drench the fire bit by bit. This whole progress took almost a full day and night. There were a lot of tiny tiles, decorated by visitors and a lot of nice pottery made by the potters. It was really nice to see what they all made. My boyfriend even managed to get a small tile as a souvenir. A nice reminder for the amazing time spent there.

Doing crafts on Sunday. Foto by Rudy Zijlstra.

In the end all I can say is that this experience was amazing! Even though I am very tired now, I can certainly say I would do it again! Everyone was so kind, fun and loving. If I could I would have made a lot more pictures, but during openings hours we had to hide all our phones and such. So, I'll have to go back for some fancy pictures of just my outfit and the park itself. I am planning on going to Vikingfest as a visitor. Maybe I'll find some new stuff for my kit! Who knows.

If you guys are interested in visiting PreHistorischdorp, I'll put a link here so you can visit their page and see all their events; Home | preHistorisch Dorp And a big thanks to everyone there for making this weekend so amazing!