It has become a tradition to meet our dear friends priyanarc and blind-spot when we're visiting our family in The Netherlands. We would either go for dinner or do something fun (honestly, dinner is fun too 😊). This time we met them in Den Bosch and drove together to Amerongen where we planned to visit a castle. We arrived in a charming little village with a castle that to me looks more like a manor house, but I've learned not to judge things based on their 'package', and I was very excited to enter the castle grounds.
Even before we purchased our tickets, we promised ourselves to come back as we arrived quite late and didn't have time to walk around the village if we still wanted to enter the castle. There is a small castle shop in front of the castle grounds and this is where you can purchase your tickets and get some souvenirs if you like. The entrance fee is 20 EUR per person and you can explore the castle at your own pace.
Let's have a look!
When you leave the castle shop you enter large castle gardens. The origins of the gardens can be found in the 17th century with many changes done over the years to achieve the set up as we see it today.
Well, as you can see the gardens were not at their best in December, but I can imagine that they are beautiful in summer. There is also part of the garden dedicated to fruit trees and vegetables that are sold to the visitors in the summer months. All the work is done by the volunteers from the local community which I admire as not many people are willing to do something like this for free these days.
They are taking great care of the grass fields too. We have a small grass patch in our garden and I wish it would look like this. I should have asked about their secret 😊 Here you can see how big the gardens really are. There is still some distance to get to the castle...
The castle is on the right and the restaurant on the left. We could have walked around longer, but it was cold, so we headed inside...
The restaurant is in front of the castle and it is located in the building that served as stables before. I wonder how it looked like before the renovation as those are some fancy windows for horses...
The history of the castle Amerongen takes us through seven centuries. The original castle that was built in the 13th century was destroyed by fire in the 17th century. This is when it was rebuilt as we see it today. It's a typical architectural style of the houses in The Netherlands just way bigger than an average house. This is why it doesn't look so impressive from outside and you will be surprised to see what was waiting for us inside. Let's go!
We crossed the bridge to enter the castle where we were welcomed by a volunteer. She explained to us that we can walk around the castle freely, and that there is a volunteer in each of the rooms to tell us something interesting about it.
We visited the castle a few days after Christmas, so we could still enjoy the decorations...
As usually, we found the kitchen on the ground floor. It was spacious, and you could find there anything that you would need to cook a delicious meal even today. It also looked like somebody was preparing festive dinner, and left in a hurry to get something that they forgot to purchase...
I took a lot of inspiration for our kitchen that we are renovating...
We continued our tour towards the dining room - I think that blind-spot tried to open every single door that he came across rather unsuccessfully as the only doors that we could use where the ones already wide open...
In front of the dining room is the serving room where the food was brought from the kitchen and arranged properly on the plates before serving. I wished those cakes were real (and vegan of course).
When did we start putting those wooden shutters on the outside? It's so much easier to close them when they are in the room. I loved this window!
And we're finally in the dining room...
The former owners left the castle about 50 years go, and left the furniture behind, so it's like they still lived there. The Aldenburg Bentinck family was the last family that occupied the castle. The grandchildren of the late Count couldn't agree on their inheritance because none of them could afford to maintain the castle, so they transferred it to the Amerongen Castle Foundation which takes care of the maintenance and opens the castle to the public.
The family was among the first ones in the region that used the innovations such as electricity or telephone. They also admired the British empire, and many pieces in their collections come from there.
Can you see that small door on the right above the clock? It's a room for a small orchestra to entertain the guests. How amazing is that!
I don't remember how heavy is the chandelier, but I know that it is an impressive number. It used to hold candles, but it was later connected to the electricity.
I was so surprised at this point as I would have never expected something so pompous when I was standing in front of the castle. It really is special...
And now we will go up the stairs...
I knew already that it was going to be good...
Photos actually don't give this place its deserved justice. It was a huge hall with portraits all around the wall. On one side there were men with the portraits of their wives on the wall on the opposite side.
This hall was used for entertaining, playing games, or dancing...
Look at that ceiling!
You can see the guide here (on the right), so you can now see how huge this room really is...
Many of the wealthy houses got their money during the colonisation. This house was not different. We could see remains of the colonisation in small details such as these candle holders.
And this was my favourite part of the castle. This is the room that was designed and built just in case that the king would visit the castle. Do you know what? Nobody ever slept in this bed as the king has never visited the castle.
Just in case he would like to play piano during his visit...
From the top floor we walked back down where we stood for a while in front of this artwork. It's a painting on the fabric and you can find there many animals if you look closely. There are a few that you find easily, but many of them are camouflaged and it was fun to look for them. This is only a part of the artwork as it was huge and didn't fit on the photo.
This room is dedicated to four seasons based on the tapestry that you can see on the walls. On the left we see wine production, so it's autumn and on the right we see summer if I'm not mistaken.
It was also used as the children room, and they had some cool toys...
The children room is connected to the sitting room that could easily be a room in a French palace...
Champagne anyone?
We were getting to the end of our tour and I could still not believe that such interior was hidden behind that classicist structure...
It was so foggy and cold when we left the castle. We planned to go for dinner in Utrecht, but then we decided to stay and try the castle restaurant. It took them ages to serve us, but the food was so good!
After dinner we brought our friends to the station in Utrecht, said our goodbyes and headed back to our family. It was a great day, and we're already looking forward to the next time when we see them again!
