Slot Loevestein - Castle Loevestein in The Netherlands

A very nice place for coffee, recommended if you visit Gorinchem! After our coffee, we headed for the boats. In order to get to Slot Loevestein, boat transportation is required. So, Anna and I waited by the dock for the next boat taxi to arrive. Within 25 minutes on boat, we arrived at Slot Loevestein and our tour began!

History Lesson: Slot Loevestein , also called Castle Loevestein, is one of the oldest standing castles in the Netherlands. Built around the 1350's, the castle was originally owned by Dirk Loef van Horne. The house changed owners many times and was used many times as a fortress, but it is most well known for it's use as a prison for Hugo de Groot.

The most famous political prisoner was Hugo de Groot (Huge the Great or Hugo Grotius). In the 1600's, Hugo de Groot was a famous scholar of international law and imprisoned for his political beliefs. His wife, daughter, and maid chose to be imprisoned with him. In the room where they were imprisoned, Hugo's wife devised a plan for Hugo's escape. An ingenious plan, he escaped by hiding in a chest that was used to bring him books while he was held captive. He escaped to Paris. There his wife, child, and maid were reunited with him. He was never recaptured. On with the tour...

The Tour: Each room held it's own history. In the bedroom area, there is a throne. The throne was used for the lord of the castle to sit on. There is a secret compartment in the seat, which serves 2 purposes. The first purpose was to hide the riches of the family. What better safe place than to sit on your riches? The second was rather unique. Not only did the chair hold the family jewels, it was also used as a toilet. Lift the seat and it was a port-a-potty. Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the chair, but I am sure you can use your imagination. The bed was very, very small. Of course, during that time, families all slept in the same bed. Something that really baffled me were some of the superstitions. At one time, families all slept sitting up. They were convinced that if you slept laying down, the fluids would rush to your head and it would explode.

Another room was the dining area for the knights. The men and women always ate at different locations in the dining area. Children were required to stand while they ate, and were not allowed to sit. I am not sure the reason for this, as the tour is in Dutch and I was not able to catch the reasoning behind it. Check out the nice photo of the knight in shining armor .

And back to the prisoners. Other prisoners were not as lucky as Hugo. They were kept for lifetime sentences or beheaded. In a photo I took, you can see what is called the " Death Cell ". It is the room where prisoners were kept in the night before their death. If you are a believer in ghostly activity, then this photo will interest you. (Slot Loevestein is also acclaimed to be one of many haunted castles in the Netherlands)

We ended the tour in the kitchen area. A very small room that looked like, well, like a kitchen. Not much really to say on that. There is a photo of it, so feel free to take a look.

Anyway, we took the grand tour of the castle, which is 100% in Dutch. For you English speakers (Like me), be sure to pick up the English translation tour at the entrance of the castle. It comes in handy! The view around the castle is amazing! There is a moat around the castle, which adds a medieval touch to it. The grass is the brightest green, there are hills to climb, and many sheep to look at...as well as sheep droppings to step in.

Once we finished our tour, we walked the grounds and decided to head back to Woudrichem , the small village next to the castle. We were able to walk through a field of flowers and grazing Scottish cows. Anne and I had a wonderful discussion of the dialect of the cows in the world. (American cows say "Mooooo", and Dutch cows say "Boooooo") Does anyone know the dialect of a Scottish cow?? Anyway, after our walk, I was well educated and am now bilingual in cow talk.

We took a 70 cents boat ride across the river to reach Woudrichem. Upon arriving, we set off to explore the town and find an ATM for me. In America, there are ATM's on every corner...here in the Netherlands, it is very hard to find an ATM, so we walked the entire town looking and asking directions. After 3 different directions, we finally found the ATM. After retrieving my Euros, we went walking more.

At 5:30 p.m., we were tired and hungry, so we decided to catch the boat back to Gorinchem to find food before catching the bus back to Utrecht. After catching the water-taxi back to Gorinchem, we went hunting for restaurants. NOTE! Most places close at 5:00 in many Netherlands towns, which includes many cafes and restaurants .

Finally, we found what we thought was a very nice Italian restaurant called Pizzeria Roma. We walked in and were very impressed with the wonderful decorations and style of the restaurant. However, the service was terrible! Our waitress ignored us for the most part, and sat at the bar drinking a glass of wine and smoking a cigarette!! The table next to us was a couple that had a dog. Anne and I figured they were friends of the owner, as they were allowed to bring a dog into the restaurant while they ate. (No, it was not a rescue dog, either.) My pizza was burnt and Anne's lasagna was not too tasty. So, we give it a thumbs down for both service and food!! Do NOT recommend it for visitors.

We sat there for a while and absorbed the atmosphere and chatted for a while. We thought about taking coffee there, but decided that the waitress would have to actually notice we were alive for us to get coffee ordered. So, we just waved money around (which of course brought our waitress), and we paid and left for the bus station.

This ended our trip for the day. We arrived at Utrecht station and went our separate ways home. All-in-all, it was a wonderful day! Thanks to Anne for putting up with my insane chatting! I highly recommend a tour to Slot Loevestein...take a camera and just maybe you will catch a ghost on film!