Another beautiful summer day in Holland today with the sun shining and 27 degrees. Luke, Louise and the kids went their own way today and headed for the town of Muiden to visit Muiderslot Castle.
The castle was built in 1285 when Count Floris V took charge of the area around Muiden.
We started our visit with a guided tour of the special parts of the castle such as the dining room, The Prince Chamber and the kitchen. Although it was all in Dutch we got the gist with the help of some English notes we could read. They would not allow any photos in the special rooms but as you can imagine they were exquisite. In the Prince Chamber they had the original babies cot and silver toys. The main bed was really small and not long enough to lay in. In the times when it was used people slept in an upright sitting position as they believed if they lay down the blood would rush to their brain and send them crazy.
In one of the rooms the children were allowed to dress in the traditional costumes worn in the castle. Johanna, Alison and Danielle were so excited to get dressed up but we had no chance of getting David into a pair of tights. We did at least get him to act as the Jester.
David couldn't wait to get into the dungeon until Luke closed the door behind them all. He gave the girls a run for their money in the squealing department.
We got to meet the birds Count Floris would have kept including a huge Falcon. The Armoury had heaps for the kids as well with swords and cross bows.
After a nice home made lunch sitting beside the mote we headed off for down town Amsterdam.What a contrast Amsterdam is to the sleepy village we have called home for the last week. The place is absolutely packed. We parked on the outskirts and caught the train to Amsterdam Central and followed the crowd outside to the even bigger crowd. We walked the streets taking in the sights for a while before the younger ones put up a final protest and we headed for home.
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