We had two trips organised for us: Het Loo Palace and for the afternoon The Netherlands Open Air Museum. Again a separate full day at each site would of suited us, and on leaving each of these we felt we had wanted more time!
As we left the coach park we entered the Stable courtyard where a magnificent tall tree not surprisingly caught my attention.
At the Het Loo Palace we had an excellent Audio Guide in English. We both very much enjoyed the the various exhibitions in the underground halls, as well as the beautifully decorated rooms.
As we toured around the house, several of the windows gave out onto view of the Palace Gardens and given the good weather, we were looking forward to walking amongst the parterres.
We decided to have a walk around the gardens and to buy a light lunch there which we ate under the colonnades which gave us a great view of the house.
The gardens were more sparsely planted than Keukenhof, but I guess this reflected the original three century old planting styles.
The layout, statues, fountains and hedges were in superb condition.
After that we made our way back to the coach, but without missing out the collection of cars, and carriages in the courtyard. We were then driven over to the Netherlands Open Air Museum.
Towards the end of our day there we enjoyed taking rides in old tramcars, to get around a little more quickly, but again with only half a day we could not cover everything, and neither did I have time to take pictures of all the buildings we visited. I particularly found the
Horse powered Oil Mill interesting which had a very good hands on guide who explained the whole process to us. After touching the pouch of crushed seeds before it went into the press, I was left lovely soft and warmed hands.
Next we went into a farmhouse where another enactor sat. She was wearing one of the traditional head coverings and explained some of the finer intricacies of weekday, and Sunday caps, and how they differed for women in mourning, etc.
There were some beautiful barns,
And exploring several farm houses where the living quarters were on one end with animals at the other end.
It was fascinating to view and understand the rich heritage the Dutch have, and in part start to understand the character of the people and place. Of course being a descendent of a
Lincolnshire Mill Owner, I have a liking for mills and the various uses they were put to.
The Museum has a number of windmills as well as horse drawn mills as used in the large commercial laundry, and the oil mill mentioned earlier.
I found the Gardens area interesting, though by this time, we were both tired and also keeping our eye on the clock, as we had to be back to the coach in quite a short time. The topiary was beautiful.
After this John who owns the Holiday and Coach company together with Martin, drove us back to our Hotel, in time for just a short freshen up before it was time for dinner.