outdoors | Going Dutch

Pentecost weekend camping and castle hunting

June 8, 2012 66 Comments

The Nijenhuis Castle

I take a bit of a break from my Tuscany series and bring back a bit of Dutch flavor to my post.

Two weekends ago, we had this long weekend due to the observance of Pentecost. The Dutch may not be that religious but there are a few Church holidays where an extra day of holiday is observed the following day such as Christmas (Second Christmas Day), Easter (Second Easter Day) and Pentecost (Second Pentecost Day).

The Pentecost weekend had the best weather we ever saw this year with summery temperature that hit beyond 30 degrees Celsius. After the wet, grey and chilly spring, we were just so glad to finally be able to get rid of our coats and wear light clothing and to be able to enjoy sunshine to our hearts’ content. We opted to go camping and put to test the new tent which we were pretty curious to check out. Our old tent suffered irreparable from the mistral last year when we camped in the South of France.

We camped in Heidepark, Lemelerveld which was about an hour’s drive from our place. No special reason to choosing this camping place except that it was a good distance away from home and that there was also a pool which the little girl was so excited about.

I love combining such an adventure with castle hunting and in this country, it is not impossible to find a castle that is within easy reach. The Nijenhuis Castle proved to be a good choice because it had a wonderful sculpture garden and amazing collection of contemporary Dutch art as well. The sculpture garden was a big hit with the little girl who found it a wonderful place to explore and simply perfect for hide-and-seek.

Father and daughter outside our tent

Improvised skipping rope game

Playground at the camping site

This rabbit from another tent charmed her straight away

The rabbit and the little girl

This little girl braved the chilly waters of this unheated pool

Father and daughter at the pool

Cold…brrrr….

The Nijenhuis Castle

Another angle of the castle

The Nijenhuis Castle

The little girl enjoyed picking the little white daisies to make little bouquets

The little girl and the castle

The sculpture garden… the little girl and me were fascinated by the strange guy with the long moustache which was groomed in a very peculiar way

Father and daughter

Me behind the camera

Me and my little girl

Our family

Artwork at the sculpture garden turned plaything for the little girl

Perfect for climbing

The sculpture garden with the well-known piece of Queen Wilhelmina (grandmother of Queen Beatrix) in the distance

Our family

The little girl spent so much time coming up with leis made from flowers and twigs

Perfect place for running around and hide-and-seek

Rhododendrons in full bloom at the castle grounds

Pink rhododendron

Pink rhododendrons

Inside the castle

Lunch of tomato soup

and freshly baked breads

Filed under Culture, Family, Nature, Netherlands, Travel, Uncategorized Tagged with art collection, camping, castles, Culture, Europe, Holland, museum, Nature, Netherlands, outdoors, pentecost weekend, photography, rhododendrons, spring, The Nijenhuis Castle, travel, travel photography, vacation

Tulips (part 1)

April 7, 2012 94 Comments

Busy time right now preparing for tomorrow’s Easter egg hunt. The little ones are already so excited. We will have the egg hunt in the sand dunes of Soesterduinen which is just a few kilometers away from our place. It sure will be a lot of fun because there is so much space to run around for the very energetic and hyper kids. Lots of secret places to hide the eggs as well.

Nonetheless, let me share with you these tulip images which I took last year from a showcase of various types of tulips which we chanced upon while driving through the Noordoost Polder.

Filed under Nature, Netherlands, Travel, Uncategorized Tagged with Europe, flower fields, Nature, Netherlands, Noordoost Polder, outdoors, photography, Photos, plants, polder, spring, spring blooms, travel, tulip fields, tulips, vacation

One unreachable castle on one fine day

March 20, 2012 110 Comments

Kasteel Biljoen

Being a big castle freak, I always plan our usual Sunday stroll to be in some castle grounds. We’re lucky to have several castles and palaces nearby but I also want to discover new ones. Two Sundays ago, the weather was so nice that it was a perfect time to go about castle hunting. I checked on the Dutch castles website and saw one which looked pretty in picture and so off we were to the town of Velp to check on Biljoen Castle (Kasteel Biljoen).

Unfortunately, the castle is off-limits to visitors as its previous owner, a baron who died in 2006 has willed that the castle will not be turned into a museum or open to the public. Instead, it will be kept as a private residence by anyone who acquires the castle. Disappointed at first, we found other ways to enjoy the day by going around the castle grounds and at some point, my husband and daughter devised a game of throwing stones to circular targets that they have drawn on the ground. My little girl just loved being out, being able to play with twigs and pretend fishing. I enjoyed savoring the early signs of spring…from the lone crocus coming out of the ground, to the cheerful pigeon up the tree, to the blue sky that reminded me that there will be more days like this.

Life can be fun even when our best laid plans do not work out as we want them to be. Beyond this castle, we discovered a lovely nature reserve area nearby and another castle… Will tell you more in my next posts.

Ducks swimming in the moat

The mound is the ice cellar which in olden times was used to store the ice blocks gathered in winter to chill food in summer

The moat

Filed under Culture, Family, Nature, Netherlands, Travel, Uncategorized Tagged with Biljoen Castle, castle grounds, castle hunting, castles, castles and palaces, family, kasteel, Life, Nature, outdoors, photography, Photos, signs of spring, spring, spring blooms, travel, vacation

The beauty of rain

March 4, 2012 216 Comments

Geraniums in the rain

We can plan our lives in careful details, at times down to every bend and turn. We want that perfect holiday with sunshine and blue sky but what if we get the exact opposite?

On a holiday to Austria way back in early June 2009, that was exactly what happened to us. Instead of the beautiful alps where Maria from the Sound of Music is singing “Doe a deer” with the Von Trapp children, we arrived to a gloomy Salzburg and the mountains were hardly visible from the mist. The weather forecast was very discouraging too, cold and wet in the many days to come.

Instead of staying in our tent as we have booked an already assembled tent and we just needed to step in, we had to stay in the camp apartment for a week in our 2-week holiday because of the sheer cold and dampness inside the tent. Going around was in most cases, dampened by the not so cooperative summer weather of rain and more rain.

This holiday…not turning out the way I envisioned actually gave me an altogether different perspective. I learned to appreciate the rain and its nurturing role in the environment. I learned to appreciate that in life, our plans may not always work out the way we wanted but we can always make the most out of it.