Started the day with some cheese loading in the kitchen of our Castle accommodation then headed east, with a quick stop to purchase more sunscreen and moisturiser - low humidity is cracking us up!!
 |
| Getting ready to leave our hostel in a castle.... |
We rode along town roads for a while (on the cycle paths of course) then headed into the rural areas where we rode past fields of corn, wheat and grass being cut for hay. A little further on we were in the dairy part of Holland, and I can see why Dutch milk is so good with free range cows eating the very greenest of grass.
 |
| Bikes have priority on ALL roads ... I love riding here!! |
We spotted our first castle through the trees & tried to get a better look, but alas it was well fortified. It was the last surviving castle of about 13 in this castle belt. It is now a boutique hotel.
The scenery was so pretty along the route. We continued for a little whole & came across a more modern castle of about 250 yrs old in excellent condition. The castle was Broekhulzen and is privately owned. Information about the castle I foundshows why it is in excellent condition - it has had to be recently rebuilt. ...
 |
| Broekhuizen Castle was build in the 13 century. In 1473 a towerhouse was
build as an expansion. in 1944 the castle was destroyed in the war,
only the 15 century tower was still standing. There was even a battle here in WW2. |
 |
It
was while gazing from afar we met another couple touring on bikes who
we chatted to for about 30mins. They were Dutch doing a 3 day ride
around Holland. |
Continuing on we checked out a windmill in Amerongen
 |
| Windmill Maallust. The name can be translated both as Lust of Milling and Lust at Milling. This round brick building was built in 1830. From 2007 tot 2009, this beltmolen (mill on a mound
or hill) was restored and partially rebuilt from a state of disrepair,
after being relocated over 17 meters. After the restoration it is used
again for grinding flour, albeit on a small scale. The mill is at the Molenstraat, the houses are at the Burgemeester Jonkheer H. van den Boschstraat. Their low roofs are designed to provide a free windflow to the mill. |
We then came across a really old castle (
Amerongen and
the Castle) that has been restored as a museum. We paid the bucks to inside on a tour & it was fabulous!! All of the accessories and furniture etc were the originals used in the castle over time. The last owner was a bit of a traveller and collector so there was so much from all over the world. it has an interesting history and was not damaged during WW1 or 2. The German Emporer Wilhem 1, sought refuge there from 1918-1920 after fleeing Germany at the end of the war.
 |
| One of the families that lived in the castle in 18th century. |
 |
| The original kitchen and slaughter area of the castle. |
 |
| The more modern kitchen in the castle. |
 |
| The gallery of the castle - beautiful portraits of many different people |
 |
| The library with a giant globe |
The highlight of the tour was visiting with the castles 'Angels' who are volunteers from the local community to restore the wall hangings and curtains to their former glory. They had one professional who was overseeing the projects and many helpers sewing and patching the wall hangings so they can be rehung.
A bust of Wilhelm 1 - last emporer of Germany. He gave this to the family who hosted him for 2 years as a thank you present for their generosity. They were not impressed with his gift apparently.
 |
| The view from every window was as if you were still in medieval times. |
We then had a quick lunch on a park bench - more cheese loading & headed toward a place to stay. It did rain on us a bit, but nothing too traumatic.
We rode through some spectacular forests in the afternoon - which had hills!! This shocked my body on the first one, I couldn't figure out why I my legs were working so hard for such a small speed - then I realised we were going up a long slow incline.....
 |
| Dutch cows - they looked like they had been painted. |
 |
| Dutch horses ... |
 |
Just another breathtaking farm scene as we rounded a corner.
|
 |
| The scenery we passed was just lovely. |
 |
| Wageningen town centre and church |
 |
| The budget hotel we found after riding for ages around the town. Breakfast was included. (more cheese ;-)) |
 |
| They had this really neat indoor tent thing in the lobby ... |
 |
PS .. First injury suffered .. See below, the cogs bit me in a moment of loss of balance!!
|
No comments:
Post a Comment