Castlefest / Noordwijk Post 2 - a daytrip north

[vampyresheep]

Tuesday. We'd been invited to Wendy and Gerrit’s place for a garden party, about an hour's drive north. Wendy had also booked for us to visit the Nederland Kremlin in the afternoon. To make the most of the day we had planned to visit. Brederode Castle on the way but found it closed on Tuesdays, however Facebook in its creepy way, posted a suggested as for Zaanse Schans, a twee village / open air museum just north of Amsterdam.

Tourist trap maybe, but it was very pretty and gave us all the windmills, clogs, cheese and pretty rural architecture we could ever wish for. A lovely way to kill a couple of hours. Although sweet waffles with grated cheese is an experience I could live without.

 




windmills!






mini windmills




so many goats, they come in stacked form


the windmill walk





the Cat Windmill








cunning positioning of a Cecile in the foreground, to hide the less decorative picnicers in the background.




clog silliness










and a Clog Museum

 

Continued our journey to Nederland Kremlin, arriving a tad early and were greeted by the artist's wife. Basically a garden of outsider art, the place consisted of a series of beautiful and quirky structures, mostly influenced by classical design, by a former mechanic/artist with no formal architectural training. The name derived from the familiar onion shaped domes of the main structure, but in addition to this Russian influence, Greek, Roman, Eastern and natural influences abound.

Once Wendy, Gerrit and the kids arrived, we explored and took lots of photos. Quite some experience and the artist was happy to explain items, switch on the fountain and let us onto the balcony/roof of the main structure.





where the magic happens - the artists workshop


new structure in progress




exploring the main garden












Rob happy sitting next to a mermaid


the artist switched on the fountain for us - via that very precarious wooden gangplank (no idea how he switches it off again as the plank gets soaked!)




Simon, trying not to notice all the mahoosive spiderwebs just behind him






bat!


snail!


dragon!


erm, frog???


they don't usually allow visitors on the roof during usual opening hours but made an exception for us as a private booking


a beautiful green lake behind




being the architecture geek that I am, I loved all the classical design elements, all thrown together to make no sense a whole, just wonderously bonkers




it was a little warm, so the shade was good!

artistes!


more quirky animal details on the chapel (cloisters?)


fish tickler



in the chapel


view from the chapel










so much detail everywhere, to capture

Afterwards, we finished the day at Wendy's garden party, having as barbeque and drinking Green Goddess cocktails. For some reason I failed to take any photos but their house and garden are just beautiful. We were also joined by Liddy and her husband, Alwin and it was lovely to spend a few hours socialising with them all in more relaxed surroundings than the usual balls and festivals.

Very photo-heavy post as there was so much to see - many more photos can be seen in the full gallery

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