TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

This is not the first time I have been to this halcyon of a place: Heerlijkheid Marienwaerdt (in Beesd, Geldermalsen), a divine and pastoral nature’s park where one can truly reflect and enjoy what quality life is all about. A couple of years ago we were here with the whole Dutch family celebrating the birthday of my other Dutch brother-in-law. We had a little picnic in the woods and did a walking route whilst picking chestnuts and castanas along the way. To check out this remarkable place, please go to their official website: Heerlijkheid Mariënwaerdt (in Dutch) De Stapel(b)akker pancake house. The sun was out; beautiful weather it was. We had light lunch here with coffee, tea, and tart. My organic tea and a souvenir foto of the Dutch sister’s chic and classic red Volvo before she finally says bye to her (jammer but she’s retiring her soon... and perhaps display her in a museum, ha-ha, rightly so!). Feast for the connoisseur culinaire zealots: De Landgoedwinkel - this is the organic ...

In my continuing quest for history and culture, I spend idle moments googling (an addiction we all think is normal) and discovering a plethora of sights and places, when I ran into this interesting website about the twin towns in the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. The twin towns and border pole (grenspaal) between Belgium and the Netherlands. These twin towns are said to be the most remarkable village in the world as there are 30 loose puzzle pieces of land tangled seamlessly with each other and under two sovereignty - Belgian and Dutch. Baarle-Hertog , the Belgian municipality has 22 loose bits of land in Baarle-Nassau, the Dutch municipality. Baarle-Nassau in turn has 8 loose bits of land in Baarle-Hertog. These bits and pieces of land are called enclaves. Here is a description of the sister towns I found from their official website: “No where else in the world is known of a municipality so extremely interwoven with a municipality of the neighbouring country. Thi...

I finally made it to Muiden! Dutchman was teasing me that our weekend was a grand and marvelous [insert sarcasm here] one. With all the culture, history, art and architecture we absorbed in the little village of Muiden, nothing could have been so much better. Actually, Dutchman refused to go with me in to the castle. He is, as written and published many times in this blog, per culture, art, and history pursuits totally overdosed – blanched – ad nauseam – defunct. His brains will malfunction if you show him pictures of bewitching architectural masterpieces. The Muiderslot in Muiden, constructed in 1280 by Graaf Floris V. The writer Pieter Cornelisz. (PC) Hooft also lived here during the Golden Ages (17th century). What to do? What can you actually do if you grew up in a country and continent with breathtaking castles, mystical ruins, and amazing works of art and architecture still standing tall? Answer: you get used to them and sometimes take them for granted. Dutchman said – If you hav...