Local Castles

In honor of Valentine’s Day coming soon.  May be a romantic getaway is in order?  Many of the local castles have been converted to upscale hotels with amazing restaurants hiding within the stone walls.  

Hotel Kasteel Bloemendal

Bloemendalstraat 150
6291 CM Vaals, Netherlands

Tel: +31(0)433659800

Fax: +31(0)433066612

Website: http://www.hotelbloemendal.nl
Email: info@bloemendal.valk.nl
*Fine dining restaurant and hotel – last minute deals are sometimes available on the website allowing very good rates for a night’s stay.

Kasteel Terworm
Terworm 5
6411 RV Heerlen
T: +31 (0)45 400 11 11
F: +31 (0)45 400 11 22
E: terworm@valk.com
W: http://www.terworm.nl
*Fine dining restaurant, Hotel, and Gardens










Lucullus Restaurant at Kasteel Reivieren
Retersbekerweg 88; Klimmen
0031-045-5748508
email: info@restaurantlucullus.nl
web: http://www.restaurantlucullus.nl/
hours: Wed – Sat from 1700-2100 and Sun 1400-2100
(lunch by reservation only)
*Restaurant only – no lodging available at this castle. The castle itself is open for tours once a year.






Kasteel Amstenrade
Hagendorenweg 1; Amstenrade, NL
+31 46 4421950
http://kasteel.amstenrade.net
*Partially lived in by the original family. Tours available for groups on request.




Kasteel De Berckt
De Berckt 1; Baarlo, NL
Tel: 0031-077-477-1385
E: info@berckt.nl
Web: http://www.kasteeldeberckt.nl
*Lodging for groups of 35 or more.




Chateau De Raay
http://www.chateauderaay.nl
http://www.hotels-world.com/
*Dining and lodging in an old chateau built in 1256 and used as a monastery since 1937. Reopened as a hotel in 2004.



Kasteel Baexem
Kasteelweg 7a
6095 ND Baexem
Tel. 0475-453205
eval(unescape(‘%64%6f%63%75%6d%65%6e%74%2e%77%72%69%74%65%28%27%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%69%6e%66%6f%40%6b%61%73%74%65%65%6c%2d%62%61%65%78%65%6d%2e%6e%6c%22%20%63%6c%61%73%73%3d%22%61%78%65%6c%72%65%66%22%3e%69%6e%66%6f%40%6b%61%73%74%65%65%6c%2d%62%61%65%78%65%6d%2e%6e%6c%3c%2f%61%3e%27%29%3b’));info@kasteel-baexem.nl
www.kasteel-baexem.nl
*Bed and Breakfast, fine dining, falconry classes, cooking classes, and beautiful gardens.

Kasteel Exaten
*Once a monastery, this large castle is now part of a national park.
http://www.nationaalpark.nl/meinweg/

Kasteel Bongart
Schoolstraat 32; Bocholz
*photo ops only

Kasteel Borgharen
Kasteelstraat 6; Maastricht
Tel: 043-3635623
www.kasteelborgharen.nl
*Expensive luxury apartments for longer stays. Beautiful grounds.




Hotel & Restaurant Kasteel Doenrade
Limpensweg 20
6439 BE DOENRADE
Tel: +31 (0)46-4424141
Fax: +31 (0)46-4424030
info@kasteeldoenrade.nl
www.kasteeldoenrade.nl
*Hotel, Restaurant, Events… does a nice high tea

Local Cultural Emersion

Reader Recommendation…

20th Annual Cultura Nova comes 27 August – 5 September, 2010!

Check out “Culturanova” at http://www.culturanova.nl/ to learn about this annual festival. The website features a British flag icon that takes you to an English site with lots to explore. This festival features theater, visual arts, music, dance and more at 19 locations around Heerlen and Aachen. Many venues are free and those with an entrance fee are reasonably priced. You may even find advertising booklets around town in both Dutch and English. If you think you’ve not been getting out much lately, this is your chance to plot an outing, or two – or more!

Pannekoeken

The Dutch have taken pancakes to a whole new level. Their pannekoeken are thin like crepes and can be topped with anything! Fruit, whipped cream, ice cream, shots of sweet liquors, gyros, ham, cheese, vegetables… it’s endless. The problem is deciding which one.

So pannekoeken is almost always a great treat where ever you might be in the Netherlands, and, if you’re looking for a place here, there’s a great chain called the Pannekoeken Bakker that have a couple of restaurants not far from us. An amazing variety on their menu, great service, always something special for kids, and they take credit cards.

The Thorn location has a play room down stairs. The Maaseik location gives tokens to the kids that they can collect for big prizes or cash in right away for small ones. They all have menus with crayons that keep little ones busy.

Thorn and Masseik… plus a bunch of others.
http://www.pannekoekenbakker.nl/

There’s also a great pannekoeken place in Gulpen that is not a part of the above chain, but has a nice outdoor playground – perfect for fair weather days. http://www.depannekoekenmolen.nl/

SnowWorld, Landgraaf

Would you like to brag to your friends back home that you went skiing in July? Go to SnowWorld!

SnowWorld
GPS: Witte Wereld 1, Landgraaf, NL
Website: www.snowworld.nl (English site available)
PDF info file link

SnowWorld is a indoor ski center in Landgraaf, NL just about 20 minutes from GK where you can ski or snowboard any day of the year. There, you can rent all of your equipment: skis, snowboards, boots, helmets, and sleds.

There is one small area for beginners and young kids with a conveyor belt so that they can step onto it and get slowly moved up the hill at a non-threatening pace.

Just to the left is a banana tow, a rope tow with plastic “bananas” that hook behind you and pull you up. Then, just to the other side of the run sits the one and only chair lift there. It’s not bad. It goes up a ways in between two runs that weren’t open that day and over the top of a mid-hill restaurant advertising “biertje?” It lets you off at the top, of course, and then there is one run to go down that is a perfect beginner run.

Kids under age 6 get free ski passes, so you only have to pay for ski rentals. Helmets are not required, but gloves are.

So, there it is… indoor skiing. This place is great for people who love to ski and want to continue in the summer. It’s great to train. It’s great for beginners. It’s set up beautifully with everything that you need pretty conveniently located. However, being indoors, it lacks trees and sky – two things that play a large part of my ski addiction.

Will I go back? Definitely, occasionally, with friends. Often, no. I need sky and trees and a variety of runs. This one run was fun, but got boring really quickly and I can imagine that on a busier day, the little slopes would fill up making it impossible and probably a little dangerous to attempt a good run down the hill. My tween aged daughter enjoyed herself, but she felt the same way. She’ll go with friends to have a good time and be social, but it’s not a place she needs to go a lot. We prefer the mountains. Send us to the Alps!

Valkenburg Caves

Valkenburg is just a 40 minute drive from Geilenkirchen and is a great place to go for a day trip or if you have an afternoon free. It’s very touristy and almost always crowded, so be prepared for that, but you’ll find a lot of restaurants, an amusement park for kids, a lot of interesting historical sites, a spa worth spending an entire day at, and, of course, the caves.

Known for their Marlstone caves, the municipal cave has over 100,000 visitors a year, but there are several caves you can tour, including the Roman Catacombs.

Adventure groups arrange paintball, biking, and laser tag inside the caves. Deep underground, the temperature stays moderate all year making it a nice stop if the weather outside is unbearable. Kids and adults alike will also enjoy the toboggan rides down the hill.

I toured Fluweelengrot cave and castle ruin.

Apparently, the entire area used to be under sea, so over many many years and a changing climate, the sand and sea matter pressed together to create Marlstone. The marlstone is very strong and heavy, but also very easy to cut into. The cave we explored was created in 1050 when the castle was built because they took large Marlstone blocks from the cave to build the castle. It also ended up acting as an escape route for castle dwellers at times of war. The tour was in Dutch, but several Dutch people on the tour helped to translate things at different times and the guide also took time in between stops to tells us about things. They were all very friendly and there was a lot of laughing from everyone, so I suppose the tour was funny. It was interesting to see. In the late 1800′s locals started to decorate the cave to attract tourists, so there are beautifully intricate “paintings” throughout the cave. They were done by painting the entire surface of a wall black, then carving into the marlstone to add the light areas. It is amazing. During WW2, the Americans used the cave during fights with the Germans. They were able to sneak up to the castle ruin on the hill and see what was going on. So, there are also sillouettes of the American soldiers painted there and many other signs of their presence. A full chapel with confessional and baptismal is there and there was a hospital of sorts in the caves as well. (http://www.kasteelvalkenburg.nl/en/sub_velvetcave.html)

The cave tour lasted about an hour in pitch black surroundings. We only had the small oil lamp of our guide to light the area for most of the trip. It eventually led us up steep narrow stairs up to the bottom of the castle ruin. The castle is a ruin because it had been captured by the French and recaptured again by the Dutch. Upon threat of the castle being captured again by the French, the Dutch king blew it up. So, it is ruin, not by age, nor by the hand of an invader, but by the Dutch. It was pretty. I would have loved to see what it looked like before. Instead, it started to rain just as the cave tour ended and we walked around the old brick ruin getting wet.
(http://www.kasteelvalkenburg.nl/en/sub_castle.html)

This is the cave where the annual Christmas Market is held each year.

Parking can be frustrating. I’ve found both situations there – easy parking, and the driving around in circles until eventually giving up. If you know of any quick and easy parking solutions in Valkenburg – please share!

There is a lot to do in Valkenburg… it just takes some exploration. Try something new and let us all know how it is!

• www.kabelbaan.nl
  
• http://www.ondergrondsvalkenburg.nl/
• http://www.valkenburg.nl/
• http://www.katakomben.nl/
• http://www.aspadventure.nl/index_en.php
• http://www.fluweelengrot.nl/
• Christmas Market info: http://www.valkenburg.nl/toerisme/informatie.php?lang=en&menu=3&submenu=8

Drielandenpunt

Drielandenpunt
Viergrenzenweg 97 6291 BM VAALS
Tel +31 (043) 306 52 00
Fax + 31 (043) 306 59 45
E-mail info@drielandenpunt.nl
http://www.drielandenpunt.nl/

In Vaals, NL, only about 45 minutes from the GK area, you’ll find Drielandenpunt. The “Three land point” is the highest point in the Netherlands and the place where the borders of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands all touch each other. In hill country with lots of trees and rolling fields of crops and cows with many white half-timbered farmhouses sprinkled among them, the mount where the borders collide is a mishmash of curvy roads and tiny houses squished together, but the top is flat and forested with trails running throughout making it a very nice place for walking, running, biking, and roller blading alone or with the family.

Drielandenpunt
Open 365 days a year daily, 24 hours a day
Price: Free entrance to the Drielandenpunt area, the large playground (we love the playground!), walking trails, and picnic areas.

Maze/Labyrinth
The maze takes 60-90 minutes to get through – even with the help of the tiny little map. Hint: The exit and entrance are connected, so if you get lost and frustrated when you find the entrance 4 times and not the exit, then you can go to the entrance and turn right through the gate that will get you out. There are benches to sit within the maze if you get tired. There are also water traps that could soak you if you aren’t careful.

Open: from March until 1 November daily from 1000-1800. The ticket booth closes at 1700.
Price: 3 Euros for adults and 2.50 Euros for children up to age 12.

Tower with View of the three countries

Adults 3 Euros, Children 2 Euros.
Take the elevator or the stairs to the top for an amazing view. The stairs do wrap around the outside of the tower and do have an open space, so if you are wearing sandals and one drops, you may not know what country it will land in.

You won’t find an ATM machine, so bring cash. The parking, viewing tower, maze, and of course, food and gifts do cost money. The cement pillar, large playground, and walking trails are all free. Parking: Parking costs 2 Euros and the machines only take 1E, 2E, or 50 cent coins. There is plenty of it. Go early if you can, especially on a hot day. Kids: Yes, take the kids. They’ll love the large playground and maze. Bring water on a hot day.

What’s there: Restaurants, ice cream stand, souvenir shops, large playground, maze, viewing tower, and a photo-op by the cement pillar that marks the point where the three countries come together.

Food: You can bring in your own food and beverages or you can buy it all there. There is an ice cream place, drinks and sandwiches right next to the playground so you can sit and eat while the kids play. Or, you can also take advantage of the sit down restaurant with a more extensive menu.

Grounds: Again, the trails extend quite a ways, so bring your bikes and enjoy the ride.

Free amusement: Watch the bazaar game of twister than people play by the little pillar as they try to get each hand and foot in a different country. It’s funny.

Meerrsen, NL

Meerrsen is in the hill country of South Limburg only 30 minutes from GK house. It’s beautiful to get to as it rests on a high plateau with valleys on either side. The town itself was settled long before the Christian era, but there wasn’t any evidence to that effect that we could see. It’s claim to fame now is its basilica which stands right on the edge of the town square.

Since most of these towns are built with the big church in the center by the market, driving to the center of town is quite easy. You simply follow the steeple. Just a couple blocks from the square, you’ll notice signs for a synagogue. It is closed most of the week with the gate leading to it locked up, but you can still see the beautiful dome and the large entrance door with names crafted onto it.

Historical attractions?
The Basiliek van het Allerheiligste Sacrament is intricately detailed and beautiful. The flying buttresses show off it’s Gothic roots and the steeple with two tiers of bells play beautiful music many times in the day. The inside is special. It has beautiful windows and ornate alters hundreds of years old. Every little detail is perfect. The teoteca (1500), an old pulpit from where sermons are delivered, is quite stunning. It has stairs leading to a round platform midway through it’s structure. All around are extremely detailed carvings depicting different Biblical scenes. It is 9 levels tall -nine tiers of carvings with the platform in the middle. Amazing.

For kids?
Walking around the church, you can enjoy the beautifully landscaped garden park complete with a large goose-filled lake and an old stone bridge. Over the bridge is a nice playground for kids to play. Children will also enjoy bringing old bread for the ducks and geese and running around the nice green space.

Food?
All around the square by the basilica are restaurants of all kinds for both long sit-down meals, and quick snacks. There is a decent ice cream place also that serves satay rolls, shaorma rolls, chicken on a stick, satays, lumpia, and more.

Thorn, Netherlands

I heard about Thorn, NL from a friend who went there once a month for pannekoeken with her family.

The town of Thorn, NL rests on the Maas river between Eindhoven and Maastricht. It is a small town with an interesting history. The Abby church that still sits in its center dates from the late 10th century and though it’s been added on and changed over the years, the structure itself is still original containing crypts with two mummies in a lower chamber.

Most of the buildings in the town surrounding the Abby are brick painted white which is a very nice aesthetic. The sun shining on them make them look very beautiful and clean. Sidewalks and roads are all cobblestones making a bumpy ride for whoever was in the stroller, but my kids didn’t seem to mind.

The church tour is not expensive and provides a nice stroll out of the weather with art and artifacts from it’s beginning in the 10thC up to the 18th century. It’s really amazing how many architectural styles can get shoved together as churches evolve over the centuries. It’s both Romanesque and Gothic, but with many art forms inside from Belgium, Germany, France, and the Netherlands spanning over 800 years.

The church began and remained for of it’s first 800 years, an Abby. The rules of the Abby changed over the years, but at one point, membership was restricted only to 20 women of noble birth who could prove that they had 16 ancestors of noble birth – eight on their father’s side and eight on their mother’s. The French dissolved the order and made the church state property when they invaded in 1797, and it has remained a parish church since.

I enjoyed touring it. The entire place is very beautiful and so full of sculpture and paintings, it’s like walking through a museum. The crypt was interesting to me because I hadn’t seen mummies before, but they were amazingly tasteful – if that word could ever be used to describe mummies – they just weren’t the creepy, Hollywood version. Instead, the bodies seemed very tranquil and almost beautiful.

The walk around the town is nice. Quiet and peaceful. The picturesque white buildings show off the window boxes loaded with bright red geraniums very well. A small stream runs through the town and the large Maas river runs right on the edge of the town, so a river cruise is an option if you visit Thorn.

Where to eat? Though there are several small eateries, most go to Thorn for the Pannekoeken.

The Pannekoekenbakker

The Pannekoekenbakker is right on the corner by the church – impossible to miss. The decision process can be extremely difficult with over 300 topping combinations. Pannekeoken is more like a French crepe than an American pancake, only slightly thicker than a crepe. They make them the size of a medium pizza then top them with anything from fruit and whipped cream, to salami and leeks. Some varieties even come with shots of liqueur on the side.

My kids share the ham and cheese one for the meal and share one with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. My favorite is the Gyro Pannekoeken – amazing.

If you’re going with children, ask to be seated in the basement. There is a large play are there so the kids will be happy long after the meal’s over if you want to relax and have an interruption-free adult conversation.

The pannekoeken taste great. It’s worth going there once for sure. But, for a larger family it can get expensive, especially if you add in many drinks and dessert pancakes. For a family of 6, a pancake meal can cost about $100. So, nice time, but be prepared.

So, if you’re willing to be extravagant, you can go to Thorn for just about anything imaginable on a pancake… Mexican pancake, Gyro pancake, strawberries with whipped cream, ham with cheese and leaks, amaretto with fruit, etc… And you won’t need to eat for a week. They are filling.

Antiques? There is a tiny antique shop right around the corner from the church that has birds (real ones) flying around and many more in cages that entertain the children while adults look. The antiques are mostly glassware and metal – an odd assortment, but fun to look at. My husband liked the antique tools there. There were also antique sporting equipment and old doorbells.

Visser Chocolate Factory – Schimmert, NL

My daughter went to the Visser Chocolate factory in Schimmert, NL for a school field trip. They were allowed a factory tour and each got a cute little hair net cap and a chocolate bar to take home. They didn’t go into the shop – too many children, but if you’re in the area, you might want to check it out. I haven’t actually gone there yet, but the store looks beautiful in the photos on the website.

They have a new chocolate line called Articoa that is supposed to be a healthy chocolate line full of antioxidants. Another good reason to indulge in chocolate? I think so!

Address: De Steeg 32a-32b, 6333 AP Schimmert
Tel: (0031) 045-5710025
Fax: (0031) 045-5713020

Chocolate

Rousseau Chocolade
Langs de Hey 11
Industriepark Noord
6136 Sittard
Phone number: 0031-46-4519282
http://www.rousseau.nl/

Rousseau chocolate shop is a small family run chocolate shop based in Sittard. Rumor has it that the current owner’s father patented some marvelous chocolate shaving device that made them enough money to take it easy. Now the young Rousseau can be seen there almost every day working like the others on his fine chocolates. I take all my visitors there and new people as well. Some of their chocolates are fantastic and others are average – it’s just a matter of what you like. Easter is the absolute best time to go with the broadest assortment of flavors to choose from, but for something special and local, it can’t be beat. Go there anytime.

Here’s a blurb I wrote for the family one of the time’s I took my mom there. She’s a regular now each time she visits.

“This was the week to stay local and to visit little things near my house. I always take people to Rousseau chocolate shop and each time I seem to see a little more. Today I took my mom there too. It was unusually quiet – usually it’s quite full of people. I took mom back to the door to the factory so she could peek in and see the process. I’d been invited to walk around once before, but today the owner was there and there were a lot more employees inside working on things. The owner invited us in and told us to look around. We saw a man piping dark chocolate letters onto paper, then woman was piping milk chocolate onto it. Another man was pouring bars of milk chocolate, letting it cool slightly, then sprinkling a mixture of nuts and dried fruits on it. He told us what temperatures the chocolate heats to and what temperature they cool it to before working with it and adding things. He said that chocolate is a health food and told me to try some of the nuts and fruits. There was a large open container of the topping mix in front of me. I was in a chocolate factory – those things went on top of chocolate and while I knew that my hands were fairly clean, it seemed wrong to put my hand in there and take something. So, I hesitated and he reached out, grabbed a small bit of it and handed it to me. He didn’t wear gloves either. I’m not worried. I love the chocolate, but it is different. They are very relaxed there. We walked over to where the owner was working. He was making peanut clusters and told us how many kilos of peanuts he had and how hot the chocolate was and showed us where they were combined and made into candies. We saw the whole process there. Then he walked us over to the end – said they were best when they were fresh, so he snatched a couple off the end of the conveyor belt for mom and I, then got a plain one for Elise since she’s so young. Yum. Great chocolate and such a fun experience to just be able to walk in like that.”