Castle Groeneveld

Last Sunday I visited with hubby and kids "Landgoed Groeneveld" - Estate Greenfield. It was described on the net as a romantic estate in English style. Here goes the translation into English from the text on the board above (and from the folder distributed at the reception):

"Castle Groeneveld is an imposing country house from the XVIII century. It was built around 1710 under the command of huguenotte Marcus de Mamuchet van Houdringe, from the French nobility. Later on, the mansion served for a long time as a summer house for well stablished Amsterdammers. In the castle, expositions and activities are organised in the fields of culture and landscaping. During the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries its landscape was completely modified. From its original French charactheristics it acquired a more English style. (...)"

With a total of 120 hectare, Groeneveld is located in the Vuursche, a 1200 hectare area among Hiversum, Baarn, Soest and Bilthoven. Coming from the parking area (the parking is free) you reach the castle on foot. There is a huge orchard some meters away with free entrance. At this time of the year lots of flowers and herbs were dead. I guess best time of the year to visit it is indeed spring - or summer. The orchard was marvellou, anyway.

A closer view.

The original castle front door. But visitors reach the interior by a side door.

Detail from the castle entrance. Notice how clean and well preserved it is.

Here you can enjoy a view from the back of the castle with a terrace and huge lawn where kids could run around and play. And there were LOTS of kids around, really.

All the toys for the kids had information about the local wild animals - wolves, deers, skunks and birds.

Now we go inside the castle. The ticket entrance was a 4 euro fee per adult and 2 euros for a child from 6 to 12 years old. I think the prices were reasonable. The reception is situated near the entrance to the Grand Cafe and restrooms. The Grand Cafe is stunning with big aquariums and old furniture. There were flower arrangements in purple and orange colours everywhere: reception halls, corridors and near the stairs. I will be posting the flower displays latter on this week. They deserve a post apart !

Some of the salons located on the upper floor.

The salons, china, clocks and furniture collection are indeed pretty, but not impressive. I say that because I was comparing all the time to what I have already seen in the Rijksmuseum.

What is this ? A table with a lid ?

Aaaah, I see...

Owners of the castle along the centuries, coats of arms.

This was the stunning stairs that conducted us to the highest floor of the building.

This hanging arrangement gave the tone to what we were supposed to experience. While the first floor was more about culture and interiors, the following floor was more interactive and focused on bringing some awareness to pre teeners and children about nutrition, food industry, genetic manipulation and environment.

Children could play with these huge cubes and see a slide show about what used to be (animal) farming a century ago and what is now. You do not associate any longer the pices of meat you see in the display windows of shops and supermarkets and creatures which they once were. Living in the cities, you do not see animals grown for human consumption at all. You do not know how they are treated or slaughtered.

Thats a very interesting part: an interactive table where you can see (and read with subtitles in Dutch and English) short films about fish farming, green houses, nutrition and more. I discovered that salmon kept in artifical tanks get lots of antibiotics, bleargh ! And if one eventually escapes the tanks and mate a wild salmon then they will generate a type of sterile salmon.

These cabinets contained lots of information about the dangers of genetic manipulation.

Back to the interactive table: there were also lots of information from books of Michael Pollan and some of his most famous advices: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants".

"Food is only food if your grandmother would recognise it (as such). Instead of food we consume "edible foodlike substances" - and not products from the nature but from the food industry". (Michael Pollan, American bestseller author)

This was an area for very young kids. They could play and watch some films about the domestication of animals along the centuries in order to make they more suitable for human consumption. This is called in Dutch "verkipping".

In Holland there are 16 million people, almost 4 million cows, 12 million pigs and...

more than 96 million chickens !! This takes us to the attic.


De verkipping: once in the past there were the wild ox, the wild chicken and a type of wild boar. Due to domestication they all developed "softer" characterists more proper to human consumption. Now in the domains of Groeneveld farmers are trying to develop "wilder" cattle (terugfokken).

Lets go into the chicken machine, shall we ?

How does it feel being a chicken ? Do they have fun ? Would you like to become something else than a human ? Then what ?

Who shall win the competition ? Who can get more milk: the machine or the farmer ?

Photo below: Levi van Veluw.

There were also some salons were you could see videos about human action in the Dutch landscape in general. And the opportunity to think philosophically about nature. Interesting because while in Brazil "nature" is considered a wild place, where nobody wishes to live nor you would go for a couple of leisure hours, a place associated to myths, awe and fear... in Holland (and maybe Europe in general?) nature means a well organized place with fences and paths, sculptures and bridges connecting the parts, a domesticated and friendly area with visiting hours, trash bins everywhere and location maps. No unpleasant surprises, no attacks from animals or bandids, a place where people can enjoy their snacks (no fruits, please) and wear beautiful clothes. A place where they recover their energies for the week to come.

If you wish to know more about Castle Greenfield just check the site indicated on the photo below.

Castle Hoensbroek

If you are mad about castles like I am and are ready to drive up to two hours leaving Amsterdam direction southeast Holland, I then highly recommend you visting castle Hoensbroek. It is in excellent condition after works of renovation (still in process), the entrance fees are reasonable and during special dates you can enjoy shows and an open air theater with your kids. Already by the main gate we were greeted with medieval songs played by these enthousiastic troubadours that would tell stories of princesses and dragons !


There is a free parking nearby, but you can also park near the lake around the castle like we did
(we had bags with chocolates from Lindt - see my previous post - and were desperate for some shadowy place). The entrance fee is 7,50 euros per adult and 4,50 euros for chidlren from 4 -12 years old. We also bought a brochure for 2,50 euros with the history of the castle.


By the main gate there is this pretty restaurant ("Tot Slot") with and amazing garden and lake views. There is also a self service restaurant near the inner patio of the castle where you can go for some beers, ice tea, sandwiches and snacks.


Going further than the big inner patio there were lots of tents in medieval style with actors and musicians from different nationalitites (French, Dutch and German) selling their products or making demonstrations of instruments, potions and perfumes, gadgets and clothes for kids and grown ups. I had never seen or heard this instrument before played by the woman above. It was magical and soothing, very exquisite !



There were many medieval tents (see above) selling stuff for kids. Because my son is mad about knights and has already his collection of swords we bought a hard paper helmet for him with a feather on top. He is ready to fight dragons and rescue princesses now !!


Kids could also learn from the actors how to properly hold a shield and weapons or use a bow and arrow.

Ladies & gentlemen, boys & girls, nobles & paysants, old & young, dogs & cats, horses & pigs: the show (oops I mean tournaments) must start ! And this is Theobaldus and his horse Marie announcing what we are about to witness: the bravest knights have came from Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, Champagne and different corners of the world to compete and practice their skills during these springs days.


Theobaldus had hilarious remarks and was never tired. Our medieval host explained in Dutch what we were going to see and also made fun of English/American tourists: "Are there people who came from faraway Anglia here today ? Any boring English people ? Where are you ?"


Grown-ups and children were disputing avidly the best places near the fence. Most kids were sitting on the ground righ behind the fence and most adults were filming and photographing frantcly. We were there on the 23rd May and it was packed (5000 visitors, a record). It was difficult sometimes to make decent photos. I absolutely adored the shows and and camping around it.


Below you can have some ideas of what to expect. It was a very hot day and the actors were using heavy, complete costumes. They took very serious the whole play ! Theobaldus and another presentator, on the contrary, were all the time making funny and cynical remarks in Dutch, French and German.

And below you can see what happend to a knight who offend a lady and was punished with death:

Well, but life is not only made of competitions and fights. There is time also to be gentle and celebrate...

and dance...

There are also exhibitions and shows with owls and hawks or workshops about how to kill a dragon (and transform his green blood into magical potions, of course). The visit to the castle interiors had a slow begin, but it was worth all the queueing. We haven't made many pictures of the interiors because our mini-princess was sleeping on my shoulders, my allergy was back again and it was so packed with tourists. I do recommend visiting the kitchen and attic. Castle Hoensbroek has a long history starting in 1375 and was builded in several phases along the centuries. If you wish to know more about its history and important facts and also other sorts of shows along the year do not forget to visit their site: http://www.kasteelhoensbroek.nl/ . I had a great time in Castle Hoensbroek and when hosting members of my family or friends visiting Holland I shall certainly come here again !