I really enjoyed having Dani visit us for a couple weeks this November. Adam and I had lost our hunger for exploring this place. We'd settled into our ways, following the same paths to the places we go, dealing with the usual ups and downs of life. Dani came in with those fresh eyes, looking for new and fantastic things. She discovered some places we didn't even know about (like the Mergel Grotten in Zichen) and just revved up my sense for discovery again! Together she and I got to check out the Alden Biessen landcommandery (without our cameras, of course! Argh!). That got me itching to see some more castles. But, then she had to leave =( Sad panda.
Regardless, every time I drive to Brunssum, I see these brown signs (signs indicating cool places to check out!) directing me to Kasteel Hoensbroek. I'd also seen some advertisements throughout the summer about some Zand Sculptures at the castle that I never actually stopped to look at. So, one day, I just asked my friend Lisa, who I know wants to see castles and cool, old buildings over here, if she wanted to check out Alden Biessen, the Moated Millen, and Kasteel Hoensbroek with me. Well, of course she did!!
Our plans got underway. However, the day we could go was also a day I really needed to get groceries up at Schinnen (which is close to Kasteel Hoensbroek). So, I suggested that we check out that castle first, and then do the Schinnen stuff and other castles. That way, we wouldn't have to rush through Kasteel Hoensbroek, which I knew was going to be great because the website told me so! I'm so glad we started there. We spent so much time going through this castle that we only just had enough time to Schinnenize before getting back in time to be home to catch the kids off the bus. The other castles can wait.
We arrived at the castle and were just awesomed by how neat it looked. It had several building and courtyards and a huge moat. The gift shop was super fun to go through. We had to pay to enter the castle, but it was worth it. We purchased the English guidebook and began our tour. This was sooo cool because we were allowed to go into the castle by ourselves and take as much time as we wanted to check it all out. We weren't at the mercy of a tour guide, and we were allowed to take pictures! (At the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles, we were rushed through the castles in big groups which made hearing the guide difficult, and we couldn't take pictures!).
The first part of the castle we came to was the tower. It's walls were 3 meters thick! The stairs were very narrow, jsut past shoulder width. It was very neat, though very claustrophobic. I went down into the dungeon and nearly hyperventilated before I got back up into a larger area. Lisa braved the steps going up, up, up, spiraling up toward the next room. I just couldn't do it. She said it was very claustrophobic, got darker with each step, and that my voice got very muffled through the brick. Yikes! I didn't take pictures because I was just a tidge freaked out! We were able to move on (with difficulty maneuvering Zach and his stroller up and down the stairs). Here are some of the pictures I took during the rest of our tour and a few fun facts I learned. Enjoy!
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| This is the walkway leading into the courtyards toward the castle. The moat was all around us! |
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| The 'Green Room' was exquisite, definitely our favorite room. The bed curtains, drapes, and tapestries were all so beautiful and thick and soft and gorgeous and luxurious and..... need I go on?!?! =) |
Check out these incredible pieces of furniture. Woah!!
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| I had to have Lisa in this picture just to show the scale of this fireplace! There were several of these throughout this wing of the castle. |
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| A privy! Throughout the castle were many privies, ranging from fully private with doors to completely uncovered! The one off the tower was actually built out of the wall over the moat to dispose of waste. Versailles, in France, was built around the same time, however it has zero privies. They instead used potty chairs. Uck! |
We found this little space in the attic. We first thought it was a little schoolhouse. No, it was just a little meeting place in the attic. Still very cool though.
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| This awesome clock was in the bigger attic room. We sat and watched it for a while. The gears and movement were fascinating! |
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| This dining room had something odd in it that Lisa and I didn't understand until I better read the book at home. There was a weird little hole in the wall along the floor that didn't make sense. I read that it was a 'vomit hole.' These people would actually eat so much that they would puke it all up into the hole out into the moat so they could eat some more. Yuck!! |
Down in the basement we found some cool stuff. There was an arcade with really fun games. We're think we actually weren't supposed to be in that area, but we played around with them anyways. From what we could tell, these were made very recently, though reminiscent of games that could have been made at the time the castle was in use.
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| Big huge cookin' pit |
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| Wine barrels =) |
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| This was the really cool compass out in the inner courtyard. I thought it was pretty cool. |
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| This little fountain was also in the courtyard. |
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| We were so bummed. Walking into the castle, the gate leading to the sand sculptures was closed! We knew it only ran through November, but we were hoping we would get to see them anyways! So, I took this picture on the way out of the castle, thinking it would be as close as we could get. Lo and behold! The gate was then opened! So, we DID get to see the sculptures!! |
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| Even with the rain and the length of time these had been up (since July, almost 6 months, these were still pretty intact!). The knobs had fallen off the tips, but the sculpture still looked really cool! |
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| I love the fingers. |
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| Very intricate! |
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| He he, Europeans! (Or should that be: He he, Americans!? =) |
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| We took this picture on the way out. There's a little eatery just off of one of the courtyards, and it leads out to a little spit of land with this small building on it. Kinda neat. |
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| Leaving the castle. Wow. It was amazing!! |
Lisa and I agreed that this was a very cool castle. We also agreed that we definitely must make more time to search out and explore the very many other castles and edifices surrounding us. Belgium has the most castles and fortresses per square kilometer than any other European country, and we plan to scope out as many of those as we can! Did I ever tell you I love Belgium?! =)
