I will pick up with Saturday as my Friday was mostly travel with a harried, short layover in a Swiss airport. Saturday morning I took the train to Amstel and then the bus to Muiden in search of Muiderslot, the moated castle well known in that region. It is different from the many castles I have seen in Germany, perhaps because of the lowlands in Holland, a moat was necessary, something I have never seen in the German castles perched on the hills. The castle tour was quite nice and I learned that the children ate standing up. From the time that they could reach the table. Further, the children were not allowed to speak during dinner. If they did so, they were sent to bed without food. Other snippets included the fact that people slept in a sitting position for fear of passing away.
The grounds of the castle were nice with two outdoor gardens, one for vegetables and herbs and the other for fruit trees and shrubs. All of the gardens were interlaced with walking paths. The castle also has a falconry as falcons were considered part of the power of the resident of the castle. The Castle also looks back upon the town, up a canal lined with beautiful ships. There is a lock in the canal to raise and lower the ships as they move further within the town. I had a delightful lunch beside the canal at a restaurant that I found on the web.
For me, the trips from Amsterdam are interesting now. I think Amsterdam is interesting and has quite a variety of night life, but I enjoyed the quiet street that my hotel was on (very near the Centraal station) and the restaurants less traveled by tourists.
2 comments:
That is a cool castle, but I'm sad that there no Frenchmen making a game of the Englishmen. I guess in Amsterdam it would be the Flemish though?
We're going to have to get you onto Flickr soon for your photos.
Actually, I am on flikr, but there is an upload limit per month.
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