Pass that Dutch: Episode 6.5 Kasteel de Haar

I swear, I'm almost done posting about our vacation...but this episode is one of my favorites!

After the windmill town, we really felt the freedom of having a car, and so were deciding if we should drive to another old town in Holland, or go to Germany, or even try and hit Belgium. Once we calmed down and started thinking realistically, Cameron expressed a real desire to go see the Kasteel de Haar or the Haar Castle. It was in a little country town right out of Utrecht where we were staying, so that became the plan!

Driving through the dutch countryside was seriously one of my favorite parts of the trip! The neighborhood we were in was inhabited by like a bunch of rich farmers or rich people who did the old school share-cropping indentured servitude. Because the houses out there were pretty bangin...and I saw quite a few Aston Martin's ::drool:: yet this was all surrounded by sheep, cows and pigs. Someone explain this to me.

So...the Haar Castle is a legit CASTLE. It has a moat, and guard towers and all of that stuff! This was the long pathway up to the entrance gates

Divine

Sublime

So we could either walk around the grounds (which were extensive, and exquisite, even in the middle of winter) or walk the grounds and then tour inside the castle after walking around for an hour. I just wanted to walk around outside but Cameron was dying to get inside and see what was up in there. So I acquiesced because I'm such a good wife, and we spent an hour walking around the grounds

This was only the smallest corner of the grounds, but still beautiful

Oh my castle

Cam was really excited to see a really nice golf course across the moat

He was thinking about jumping the moat to go join that threesome

Ugh, what castle would be complete with out fantasyland princess swans?!

I think this is a side view of the castle, and an awesome view of my man

Cameron responding to me telling him to be more animated

Straight Lord of the Rings tree

View of the moat from one of the guard towers

Beautiful! I was so excited to find these little flowers sprouting up everywhere! They're my favorite

"But this flower, will give you protection and goodluck"

"How much does it cost"

"This one? This one costs a kiss"

Name that movie! Name it! Come on! Ok fine, it's one of my favorites of all time, Stardust

Ah yeah, this one costs a kiss.

Beautiful man

I think this is a back view of the free-standing family chapel

Ok that is a view of the front! Not the best lighting but we just had to snap a few pics

Just some crazy old sculpture all throughout the grounds

Right by the entrance

Terrible lighting but get a look at that facade

Pictures don't do justice to how absolutely gargantuan this place was

I think this is the back view, we couldn't fit the whole castle into the frame

Front steps

Ok so once we got inside, we were only 2 of 4 English speakers, and the tour was only in Dutch (which makes sense because, I mean hello we are in Holland, but I got used to everyone catering to english speakers.) We got to wear the super nerdy headphones to learn about the family and the castle, and then found out that the older American couple on the tour were from Lehi, UT and were serving their mission in Holland! Haha we were laughing so hard and became friends pretty fast. That was real exciting.

So here's the deal, this castle was totally refurbished, and rebuilt during the 1800s. This Dutch baron who loved living the baron lifestyle but realized that his family's money was going to run out on him, went to America and married himself a Rothschild. (FYI they are the flippin richest family in the history of mankind.) So, from the tour, it seemed like he just married this Rothschild lady for her money, which I'm pretty sure he did, and she allowed herself to be married to him to get the title of Baroness. It's a sad business but I mean, come on, it seems like it worked out for both of them. And who am I to judge? I married Cameron for his looks, and he married me for my super hot bod that I promptly lost about 6 months after being married. 

I digress

Ok, so the Baron de Haar guy inherited the ruins of this castle that was built during the dutch Golden Age (1500s? Anne, help me out here) and it was basically just a burnt old foundation. He used his new wife's money and the infamous Cuypers who designed basically every beautiful building in Holland at the time in a Neo Gothic style. The Baron and Cuypers wanted to make the castle as much like the old castle as possible, except with all of the modern amenities. Let me tell you, the inside of the castle was insane. It was so, flippin, opulent! I almost puked in the dining room when they told me the Candelabra was around 5 million euros. What?! Why?!

Anywho, I loved the Rothschild girl. She wanted her bedroom to be in a neo rococo style, and Cuypers and her husband both got hernia's from the tizzy fits they threw. They wanted EVERYTHING to be in Neo Gothic style, and she was like, "eh, no. My bedroom my rules." Baller! She totally had an attitude that was "Hey, I'm going to do what I want so you can keep getting uptight and all dutch about it, or you can relax and keep spending my money." She's my hero. So de Haar family would go and stay there in september? or through september of every year. And they'd invite over a ton of famous people to stay with them, and it basically sounds like a month long drunken party. Oh yeah.

So we finished the tour and had to snap one last pic of a swan on our way out

Ok! Remember how I mostly talk about how hungry I was on our trip? We asked our concierge for a recommendation for dinner, and she pointed us to St. Olivier's. It's a restaurant/bar built inside of an old Protestant church. Pipe Organ and everything. They offered 200 different kinds of beers (good thing we don't drink) and everyone in the joint was just getting loaded, all while the Holy Messiah was staring at them. I thought it was ironic but whatevs.

We asked our waitress for a recommendation and she said to get this thing called "Ham on the bone" but that it was a lot of food and she didn't think we could eat it all. Well, first off, it was probably the first time we got enough protein that entire trip, and yes, it was huge, and yes, we ate all of it. The waitress was stunned, but it was so delicious. I'm pretty sure it was the first time we felt full the entire vacation thus far. 

Oh wow, terrible shot of me, but cameron is actually sitting in an old church pew.

So we walked home fat and happy! It was glorious.