Palace Het Loo

The Palace het Loo is the Dutch royal family home in Appeldoorn, NL. We drove 40 minutes northwest to reach it.

As we walked into the courtyard past the visitor entrance, we saw what Americans would think of as a mansion. Barry didn't seem too impressed. But when I looked at the map, I realized, "that's just the stables and carriage house." Then we both were in awe.

The "mansion" stables was a u-shaped building. Along the left side building was the stable with many horse stalls. The back part of the U was an exhibition of the carriages used over the years. They ranged from simple covered carriages, to royally adorned ones, to elegant sleighs. The last wing of the building was an exhibit with the historical pictures and timeline of dutch royal family travels and visits since 1907.

As we walked past the gates and saw the actual palace, we were amazed. It was like what you see in a movie...I guess that's where they get the idea for it.

Inside the palace, each room was uniquely fashioned, and filled with antiques from around the world. There were many works of art, intricate tapestries, and unique pieces of furniture.







But our favorite part of the visit was the gardens. We spent as much time in them as we did touring the inside of the palace.

On the left side of the palace was the King's garden. It had an intricate pattern cut out of shrubbery with a fountain in the middle.






Then we walked up steps onto a wall and looked down into the expansive lower garden. This garden was longer and wider than a football field. It held several statues, several fountains, and lots of garden beds with all kinds of flowers and shrubs. Since it's fall, I'm sure we didn't see the full array of flowers, but it was still beautiful.



The upper garden lies behind the lower garden, and is simply raised up higher. It has its own fountain and flower beds, as well as a terrace where visitors can go up to a higher level and look down over all the gardens.

Walking through the lower garden and up to the right side of the castle was the queen's garden, and I can see why it would be known as such. It is definitely where I would spend most of my time. It seemed more secluded, and private. It also had intricate shrubbery patters, but also had a circuit of walkways that were surrounded by ivy covered lattices. It was fun to walk through. I could picture the royal children playing tag through the maze of tunnels.

The royal family stopped living in the palace in the 70s I believe. During World War II, most of the family was in Canada.

It was a beautiful building, but I don't know what it would be like to call it home. It doesn't seem like a home now, but maybe it did when it was daily occupied.

Castle at Bad Bentheim, Germany

On my 3rd day here, we journeyed just 30 minutes northeast in the car to Bad Bentheim, Germany to see a castle. This castle reportedly has the most visitor access in all of Europe, and we found this to be true as we climbed into the hights of the towers.

Parts of the wall and armory tower date back to 1050, and most of the castle dated back to the 1500s. Some parts had to be rebuilt after the World Wars.


We were interested in the walls of the castle with the carved out portions for the defense, they were not level perpinduclar to the wall, but were slanted downward slightly for easier shooting toward the ground. The castle is also on top of a hill, and you can see for miles in every direction from the top of the wall, and especially in the armory tower.



The dungeon was quite medieval. There were ancient circular, stone stair cases up and down. Some rooms were carved out of the rocks, and some areas shackles were still bolted into the walls and ceiling.

The courtyard was a lovely place with flowers still blooming, and the well was about 100 ft deep and 10 ft across. (of course, everything is marked in meters, but Barry was able to do the unit conversion quite quickly)

Outside the castle wall was a lovely garden area with a fountain. It was serene and beautiful with all the fall colors.

Impressions

My first impression of "Nederland", as it's locally called, is that it is a beautiful country.

The landscape from the train reminded me of driving through Arkansas or a flat version of Tennessee. The tall trees are in a full autumn array of colors, and the ground is already being covered by the fallen leaves. There are many pastures of cows, horses (and shetland ponies), and sheep. The corn fields are being harvested, and others are already being plowed for the next crop.

It has been quite enjoyable for me to watch the leaves fall. We missed having a real fall season last year in New Mexico, and in Washington, there are so many evergreen trees you don't notice the huge array of colors nearly as much. The beauty is quite astounding.

It is quite breezy here, thus the use of windmills ... old style wooden ones with large arms and the modern white slender windmills like I've seen in the USA. I've even seen some very small 3 ft high, wooden windmills in the fields for use with irrigation.

The local people seem very friendly, and I have only to say the word "English", and they smile and start conversing with me in flawless English. They may pause a little while speaking, but their tenses and phrasing seem perfect. It's been very easy to get around.

A few cultural differences:

1) Small cars - We've only seen small sedans, small/ midsize SUVs, and one small pickup truck. Even the semi trucks are more slender than in the states. This is probably because of the narrow streets, and small parking spots that line them in every village. Barry's rental is the size of a VW Jetta, so we feel very comfortable in it. And we don't feel dwarfed because no one else is in big trucks either.

2) Traffic laws - These have actually been very easy to follow. I like the system. The signs don't have words on them unless they are the names of places. The pictures are very easy to understand once you know which colors mean what. And on most country roads, there aren't even lines on the road, so you just drive so that you don't hit someone who's coming the other direction, which occasionally means going off the side of the road because they are very narrow. I'll go into more detail later about the bike paths, and traffic signals.

3) Drinking - (and I'm not talking about alcohol). The amount of beverage they serve here in restaurants is astoundingly small. If you ask for water, they bring you a glass bottle of water that is about 200 ml, or (in my non-mathematical estimation) about 6 -8 oz. And yes, for most locals, that would last them through the entire meal. Sodas are the same size, and there are no free refills. Since the water is bottled, you pay about the same as for a soda, which is about 2 Euros (about $2.60). It seems insanely high to us, and I've had to get Barry used to the idea that we just have to order 2 in the course of the meal. It does seem crazy to pay $5 for your drink alone, but I just can't get used to the lack of liquid.

This is not just in the restaurants. The guys Barry is working with are constantly amazed with how much water he drinks. All they drink is coffee all day. About every hour, they take a break to go drink a 6 oz cup of coffee. He's been getting caffeine headaches on his off days.

4) Dinner is an Experience - Dinner in a restaurant has never taken us less than 1 1/2 (except if it's a buffet). They bring you drinks, then about 10 minutes later soup or salad, then about 30 minutes later your meal. Then they let you enjoy that for 30 minutes before even checking back to see if you need anything. You have to look like you're completely finished for a while before they will come by. Then it takes a while to get the check.

It's nice to go slow, and now that we're resigned to having more than one beverage, I'm more agreeable. But one time when we were waiting for the check, I was so thirsty that I was getting quite cranky with the slow service. But that's just the way they are here. And you don't leave tips, the wait staff is paid accordingly.

Arrived

I arrived without incident on Wednesday at noon local time. The flight, though long and mostly sleepless, was enjoyable. Thanks to it being paid for by my husbands company, I was flying first class.

Complaint:
How come people can't follow directions? When the flight staff called for first class, those in rows 1 - 7, about 100 people gathered around the line. I was thinking, this can't all be the first class people. She repeatedly turned people away saying rows 1-7 only. She kept shouting, rows 1-7 only. After about the 5th time she said this, I heard someone say, "Not the Elite status?." No, rows 1 - 7 only. How difficult is that.

They feed you a 5 course meal over the first 2 hours of the flight. We started with something to drink when we were taking our seats, I got a sprite. A pillow, blanket, and headphones lay in the seats already. They passed out ammenities kits and menus while we were getting situated. The kits had everything from earplugs to toothpast and a toothbrush. I chose the pasta dish as my entree. When we got in the air, they came around with a steamed washcloth to wash our hands and face before dinner. Then dinner started with appetizers: a grilled shrimp on a skewer, a beef pastry with mustard sauce, and a small cup of mushroom soup. All delicious. Then they brought around the salad. I also tried a bordeaux red wine with the meal. It was good, but I've not yet aquired a taste for wine, so I only managed about half a dozen sips before returning to my water. The entree I chose was cheese tortelini with marinara sauce. After dinner the cheese and wine cart came around. Then the desert was 3 different small pastries, and a ice cream sundae. I skipped the sundae because I was already full. The meal was very enjoyable experience, and the staff was very courteous.

We had our own tv monitors to watch the assortment of channels playing the movies and tv programs. I watched a movie during dinner, and then switched to my ipod to try to get some sleep. I only slept for a few hours, and then returned to watching movies. I think I was just too anxious to get here.

Breakfast was served an hour before the end of the 10 hour flight. When we landed I was the first off the plane, as I was closest to the exit. The signs all had pictures of baggage, bathrooms, trains...so it was very simple to find my way out of the airport. Customs was simple. They only looked at my passport and stamped it, they didn't even ask me any questions.

I went to the train ticket counter and paid 22 Euros for a ticket to Hengelo where Barry was picking me up. The train was easy to find, but managing the baggage on the train was another story. You step up into the train into an outer compartment which I managed just fine. Then there was a very narrow doorway into the compartment where the seats were. So I had to lift my 26" suitcase sideways through that door, also carrying my 21" suitcase through the door behind me. And the door is like on an elevator, it keeps trying to shut automatically unless you hold it back.

The conductor told me that I had to change cars in about 1/2 hour in order to go to my destination. Apparently, the train would split in 2. So I had to again heft my luggage off the train and back on.

About 15 minutes from my destination, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. They made an announcement, and I asked some students sitting by me if they could translate. It was a problem with the brakes. Some of the students sitting in the opposite seats started playing their mp3 players (one was a pink ipod nano) out loud, and it was songs I was very familiar with from the states. They were singing along in perfect English too.

One of the young men helped me by carrying my large suitcase off the train, since he was disembarking as well. Barry was there, waiting for me. Our first stop was in an electronics store on our way to the parking lot, where I bought a hair dryer. It's easier to just buy a cheap one here, because the plugs are different. We do have an adapter that we use for the laptop and other items we charge.

The apartment is 2 bedroom 2 bath, and about the size of a small dorm room apartment. One of the rooms has 2 twin beds that are separated, and the other has 2 twin beds pushed together. The kitchenette in the living room has a sink, microwave, burners, small refrigerator, and cabinets with dishes. There's a small table with chairs, small tv, chair, and sofa. The balcony window is floor to ceiling across the entire wall, with dark blue curtains.

Barry says it looks like they bought everything from Ikea...of which there's a huge store about 10 minutes away. (Ikea is Swedish)

More later on my impressions of Nederland. All in all it was a good trip.

Off To Europe

I'm off to the Netherlands tomorrow for two months. I'm ready to see my husband again, it's always hard to be away from each other.

Several people have asked me to blog, and I wanted to do it on a site that was free for all to read instead of just on MySpace. So feel free to pass this website address on to anyone who knows me. I'll try to keep it updated with our travels.

Barry has already been there for 3 1/2 weeks, and it's mostly just been time working. He has 4 days off right when I get there, so hopefully I won't be too jet lagged to do some sight-seeing in the area.

Keep us in your prayers...