This summer I visited friends. As my friend has a lego exhibition at the Brink Hotel right now, I of course had to see it. After our visit we walked through the village, or rather around Laarwoud. Surrounded by trees this (former) noble manor – in the province of Drenthe they call it a havezate […]
While waiting to be able to post the pictures of two (yes two!) royal weddings in the past weeks, here is another Groninger borg. I went cycling yesterday and passed this beauty, Borg Verhildersum in Leens, that I have visited in the past. My last visit was however quite a few years ago. Unfortunately yesterday […]
I grew up in Sneek, in the north of the Netherlands. In the nearby village of IJsbrechtum was the closest noble estate, and I am pretty sure this was the first castle I ever visited, easy to reach by bike. Later when my mother worked in the Fairtrade shop in Sneek they had a stand […]
As usual Queen Elizabeth II has travelled to Balmoral Castle to spend the Summer there. Balmoral Castle is one of the two personal and private residences of the British Royal Family (the other being Sandringham). The castle is located in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. While Holyroodhouse Palace in Edinburgh is the official residence of the […]
For the first time in years the Netherlands was covered with snow last week. And there was even ice, so lots of people went ice skating outside. Not me, but it wasn’t so bad in the Netherlands that you couldn’t walk. So that is what I did a few times. The world looks beautiful in […]
Finally continued my tour of the Groninger borgen. After the Allersmaborg I had a look at the Piloersemaborg or Hamsterborg in the tiny village of Den Ham. Another place that was reachable by bike from Groningen. History The first time the borg is mentioned was in 1521 when it was a farm of the Jensema […]
It is quite a special experience having a museum nearly for yourself. At the moment you have to buy a ticket beforehand, so you never know. It was my very first visit to one of the Museumhuizen of the Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser, and honestly I wouldn’t mind visiting more of them, as it was […]
Time flies. This week it is already tens years ago that I last visited Sweden, in connection with the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel on 19 June 2010. On 17 June 2010 me and some friends visited the lovely Haga Park in Solna, Stockholm, where the couple was going to live after […]
The first castle stop in “lockdown” on 31 May 2020 took me to the Allersmaborg between Ezinge and Aduarderzijl, The Netherlands. It is situated about 18 kilometres from the city in Groningen, where I live. For a rather inexperienced cyclist like me it was quite a distance, but the weather was lovely, so there I […]
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark spends her corona-quarantine, including her birthday this week, at the Fredensborg Palace. She spends about three months in the spring and three months in the autumn at this residence, that has also been the setting for important events of the Danish royal family, like wedding receptions and birthday parties. Usually […]
