Kasteel De Haar - De Haar Castle, Utrecht province

This is the third time I've changed. I wasn't satisfied with the first two three four choices. Sorry, folks, if you'd already looked and starred and hearted. Hubby and I are both suffering from (self-induced?) insomnia at the moment. Don't worry, we're okay; just have something on our minds, is all.

MORE shots here of the castle, the park, and the village of Haarzuilens 3 km. away.

Anyway, it was a lovely day and I killed four birds with one stone -- enjoyed a lovely afternoon with good weather, explored an area where I plan to take our soon-to-be-arriving American guest, finally visited the castle which is something I'd long wanted to do, and got my daily blip.

MORE INFO on the castle's history here. To shorten a long story, Baron Dirk van Zuylen met a lovely lass one day, Josina de Haar, and asked her to marry him, which she did right willingly. They were Catholics and had to flee to France when the Protestants came to power and took over many things. About 300 years later, his great-great-etc. grandson inn France realized that there was a castle somewhere in The Neth that was inheritable but had fallen into ruin. He was married to Helené de Rothschild and so with his influence and her money, he asked famous architect Pierre Kuypers to restore the entire thing, which he did right willingly. The last baron died in 2011 and his grandchildren no longer own the entire estate. It's been put in a trust (like the National Trust) because, of course, they'll never be able to pay the heavy taxes demanded by the Dutch government for properties this size.

Re-blipping this has finally done the trick and now I will go to bed. See you all tomorrow and hope you have a good weekend!