Off to the medieval castle of Muider, the Muiderslot (slot = castle) today. The occasion was a visit from our friend A, who’s staying with us a few days – she’s American but since she’s a flight attendant it’s easy for her to come visit. She arrived early in the morning and made her way down to Utrecht. After a quick nap for her, we headed off.

Signage to Muiderslot was a bit confusing (as always, you can click on the photo to see it in a larger size).

And it snowed while we were walking to the castle.

Our first view of the castle.

And with the moat, complete with shark fins. There’s actually an info board inside to let kids know there weren’t really sharks in the moat.

The old castle garden.

In the courtyard.

The other side of the courtyard.

We took a tour of the inside, but no photos were allowed. We’d planned carefully and had Sprocket in the back carrier since we knew there’d be stairs, but the tour guide wouldn’t allow the carrier so we had to carry him and basically let him run around all the rooms. I’m not sure which is more dangerous for the stuff in the rooms – a difficult to control toddler just getting into this walking thing or a parent with a back carrier that could knock into stuff. In any case, the tour was interesting – very focused on what day to day life was like in the castle, as well as the origins of many Dutch sayings and proverbs. The tour was in English since the English speakers slightly outnumbered the Dutch speakers – it seemed we weren’t the only one taking visiting friends around.

After the tour of the rooms we got into the play area. About time for Sprocket. DutchBoy in his natural costume.

A and I.

Sprocket as a medieval man.

A leaving the castle.

Sprocket wanted to walk.

The castle.

Our little family.

Another view of the castle garden.

The village of Muiden, right by the castle.

Back home we had dinner and drank the liqueur we bought at the castle, made to an old herbal recipe. Quite a tasty end to a lovely day.