Monday, February 9, 2009

Beersel Castle































































You can click on the pictures to make them bigger and see us better.




I know it looks like we're really into castles, but they are just so accessible here and we can walk through them within an hour or so. This one took about 20 min. to drive to. Supposedly it's the only example of medieval military architecture still intact in Belgium today. It was built during the 13th century with the mission to protect Brussels against attack from Flanders. The country is doing a huge restoration to it right now. I told the kids it might be neat to visit it again right before we leave Belgium (assuming everything goes well with our visas and we're allowed to stay for the full 2 years) to see if we notice any work completed with the restoration. We were trying to figure out what some drainage type holes were as we walked along the wall of the castle and later read that defenders dropped stones and hot oil on intruders. I was just nervous my 5 year old's foot would slip, with her whole body falling through the hole, and she'd be in the waterless moat. K and I both discussed that the size of the hole was large enough for that to happen.

No comments: