Posted on by taraabit

Muiderslot Castle and Haarlem.

Wednesday 30th October 2024.

Day 47

It was only a few miles from last nights aire to the castle, there was adequate parking even if I did miss it and had to drive through the towns narrow streets turn round and go back.

In the herb garden, photo taken by a volunteer gardener.
Muiderslot Castle.
There was a drawbridge at one time.
Arms, armoury and a secure chest.
Some of the rooms were recreated as they would have been in the past.
The kitchen. Above right is a very well decorated wall cabinet, and above right which is hard to make out is a pulley with a trapdoor below where they hauled their buckets of beer up from the cellar.
We are still not quite sure what this painting is depicting but the humans are having their heads chopped off and replaced with cabbages.

There was a lot of walking up and down steps/ staircases to reach the upper levels and the top of the towers, some rooms were totally empty.

Roof joists at the top of the tower.

The castle tried to be as self sufficient as possible as it was some distance from the markets of Amsterdam, fish was caught locally and game hunted on the land, they had thriving vegetable and herb gardens.

They did seem to have some problem with giant ants.

It wasn’t a long journey to tonight’s stop at Haarlem which is a clogs throw from Amsterdam. We pulled into the street where the entrance to the aire was situated only to find a 3m hole in the road only 5m from the entrance, a large team of workmen working on a gas main. I had to do a turn around in a car park and drive about 2 miles around the block to the other side of the roadworks.

Haarlem is a lovely historic city on the River Spaarne 20k from Amsterdam. The town centre offers a colourful mix of large chain stores, speciality shops, boutiques and art galleries, there are also plenty of bars and restaurants. In the centre on the Grote Market is the Grote Kerk (Great Church) of St Bavorek.

A typical street.
We know the Dutch are bike mad, but a wooden one for €5,995😵‍💫The fact it is called Splinter made me laugh.

We avoided the shopping streets although we did have a beer next to the Grote Kerk.

We wandered down to the river which is quite active with boats passing through and people living in their boats on the river, we walked along the river to the windmill, “ Molen de Adriaan”, crossed the river and walked back on the opposite side.

A lovely narrow street called Scheepmakersdijk.
A general translation is God protect the ship.

We were beginning to feel weary and decided to head back to Homer, any thoughts of catching a bus went out of our heads when we saw this chap at the bus stop.

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