Two castles in the fog

A few days ago, while looking for some old pictures od Nijmegen, we found on Internet photos of few lovely castles nearby. Since it's weekend and quite a good weather, yesterday we went to see those monuments.

Doornenburg Castle

First was the Doornenburg. One of the oldest and best presenting castles in the Netherlands (I wish I could say "best preserved", but unfortunately it was ruined in 1945 and later rebuilt). I gotta say, it looks bigger on the pictures and my first impression was it's quite small.
-Small?! It's big! Why do you think everything in Holland is small? - Maurice seemed to be upset.
-Well, it's a small country, so everything elso here should be small.

The castle stands in a tiny village just by the German border. I was built in the XIII century. Around you can see a very calm, idyllic scenery and probably if not the dense fog that day, we could see the castle from the road. The route leads along the dike and on the both sides you can see the grazing animals. Sheeps were eating the grass in peace around the moat (yup, in January they were eating the grass....). At the courtyard the cock seemed to guard the order of the castle. There was also a cute fluffy bunny, I tried to catch and pet, but apparently he didn't want to socialize with me. From the courtyard to the main part of the castle leads a bridge high above the moat. 

In about 23 kilometers distance to the west from Doornenburg, there's another castle: Doorwerth. It's younger (built in XVI century), but it makes much bigger impression on the visitors. It's way more representative, with many towers and bascule brigde.

Doorwerth Castle

In the middle of the courtyard there's a massive 450-year old tree, Robinia pseudoacacia. Before there were three like this. Only one survived till now. The castle itself was also damaged during the II World War. Luckly it has been rebuilt and today it's a very nice for an eye touristic atraction. The location is brilliant, by the Rhine River surrounded with the hills, gives an perfect idyllic ambience. The dense fog on Saturday gave a bit of misterious and dark vibe. 

In one part of the courtyard, you can rest in a summer garden by the little restaurant. Despite the cute little fireplaces and fur coating on the chairs, the temperature did not encourage to stay outside. We went inside the cosy restaurant to warm a bit by the cup of the hot chocolade. Doorwerth is much more popular than Doornenburg. Popular mostly with the families. There was some children running around with their wooden swords ;)

I regret I didn't check my camera earlier in the morning, cause my batteries were already low. That's why we couldn't take much pictures and the one we have, were taken in a rush.