Honestly I had no idea that very close to the borg (a former stronghold or villa in the province of Groningen) that I was going to visit today, there was another one. It turns out Borg Rusthoven in Wirdum is the smallest of the 16 borgen in the Province of Groningen. I only found out […]
Around this time of the year it is wonderful to walk around in a wood or a park. With my mother I enjoyed a stroll through the park around the Epema State in IJsbrechtum, The Netherlands, on Sunday. It wasn’t really sunny, but we were surrounded by lots of autumn colours and mushrooms.
A day after arriving in Copenhagen, Denmark, the weather was quite good. Not knowing what it would be like later that week, I decided to head straight out of the country. I hadn’t been in Sweden since June 2010. Actually Helsingborg is only a nearly one hour train ride to Helsingør (Elsinore) and a rather […]
At the start of a wonderful wedding day in Bückeburg, Germany on Saturday – a report with lots of photos will follow – I enjoyed a morning stroll in the park and on the palace square of Bückeburg Palace, residence of the princely family zu Schaumburg-Lippe. It was still pretty cold and foggy, which especially […]
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Last modified: 2 October 2021 1 September The Duchess of Cornwall shared her recipe for Victoria sponge cake. Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway has returned to school her father Crown Prince Haakon has confirmed. She tested positive for Covid-19 on 22 August. It is reported that Princess Mako of Akishino (Japan) and her fiancé Kei […]
This summer I visited friends. As my friend has a lego exhibition at the Brink Hotel right now, I of course had to see it. After our visit we walked through the village, or rather around Laarwoud. Surrounded by trees this (former) noble manor – in the province of Drenthe they call it a havezate […]
While waiting to be able to post the pictures of two (yes two!) royal weddings in the past weeks, here is another Groninger borg. I went cycling yesterday and passed this beauty, Borg Verhildersum in Leens, that I have visited in the past. My last visit was however quite a few years ago. Unfortunately yesterday […]
I grew up in Sneek, in the north of the Netherlands. In the nearby village of IJsbrechtum was the closest noble estate, and I am pretty sure this was the first castle I ever visited, easy to reach by bike. Later when my mother worked in the Fairtrade shop in Sneek they had a stand […]
The first castle stop in “lockdown” on 31 May 2020 took me to the Allersmaborg between Ezinge and Aduarderzijl, The Netherlands. It is situated about 18 kilometres from the city in Groningen, where I live. For a rather inexperienced cyclist like me it was quite a distance, but the weather was lovely, so there I […]
If it hadn’t been for a royal wedding, I probably would never have visited the tiny, idyllic village of Panker in the north of Germany, not too far from the shores of the Baltic Sea. This in June 2006 was the scene of the wedding of Prince Philipp von Hessen and Laetitia Bechtolf. A wedding […]