This afternoon I visited Duivenvoorde castle, a 13th century castle between The Hague and Leiden. I had opportunity to use some of my highly developed Dutch language skills. Two busdrivers at Den Haag Centraal station could not understand what I was talking about when I said I wanted to get out at Kniplaan ( a street nearby the castle) “Oh you mean Kniplaan” “That’s what I said.” Personally I could hear no difference from my pronunciation to theirs , but whatever.
The busdriver who said his route stopped at Kniplaan promised to let me know when we were there and then promptly forgot until 1km after the stop. He did apologise seven or eight times though so that was OK. So I was plopped on the side of a main road and had to walk back to the castle, whose tree lined driveway was another 500m long.
When I arrive at the first building there was a ticket machine where I bought a wandelkaart for €1. Wandel is walking and kaart is ticket and you need a kaart if you want to wandelen in the castle grounds. I seemed to be the only person on a wandel and felt like I shouldn’t be there, a wing of the castle is still a residence for a last remaining member of the noble family who owned the manor, but the park and gardens of the castle are on 264 hectares so surely nobody would notice me there. Then a nimble white haired elderly man wearing a Bavarian felt hat with a feather rode up to me along a gravel path on a motorscooter and said “Heeft je en wandelkaart?” “Ja” I replied and showed him the wandelkaart. “Prima! Dank je wel” he responded and rode back to wherever he came from, possibly several kilometres away. Earnt his €1.
Duivenvoorde originates from a 13th century moated tower but it’s present style dates from major restoration works in 1631 and 1717. The gardens have ponds blanketed with waterlilies, pretty bridges, expansive lawns and mysterious pathways through dark greenery. Rabbits and hares jump out in front of me and black and white Friesian cows, sheep and horses graze on surrounding fields.
Since 1960, Duivenvoorde Castle it has been in the care of a trust and open to the public as a museum. I did the castle tour, the only way to see inside. The tour was of course in Dutch with a whole lot of Dutch people. They did provide me with a summary sheet in English, but to my surprise I understood a lot (well, some, maybe a liitle then) of what was said. Then again context is everything, when the guide points to a portrait painting I’m expecting a description of who the subject is, the artist, the year it was painted and that’s what I generally got. Each room of the castle is as if it was still lived in and several hundred years of interior decorating styles are represented. There are huge portraits of noblemen and women in elaborate gilded frames, collections of porcelain and silverware, old rifles and deer heads (straight to the poolroom) on the walls, gold leather wall coverings, chintz bed linen, and a huge laundry with old mangling equipment.
Because it is school holidays for Dutch children, there were five sweet ridiculously polite children on the tour aged between about 6 and 12 years. They seem genuinely interested in the historical furniture and paintings but knew not to touch things for the whole 90 minutes. Standing right up the front, they were in awe of the guide and eagerly put their hands up to ask appropriate and insightful questions like “waarom is het bed zo klein?” (Why is the bed so small?). They were like the Von Trapp family children.
Check this out Timeless, Trendy,Tranquil: A Summer Evening Concert at Duivenvoorde Castle
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