Castle Tours

Saturday we (Naomi and me and the girls and Naomi's parents) went on a tour of castles in Klein-Brabant in the Antwerp region. The tour was organized by the Belgium (and Luxembourg!) branch of the Fulbright Program. A chartered bus picked us up at Central Station in Brussels, and we had professional tour guides of the Castle of Bornem, and also the De Notelaer pavillion and the Castle D'Ursel, both in Hingene. The two castles (Bornem and D'Ursel) didn't seem quite like stereotypical castles, although they each had a moat.

For each site, our group divided into two, each with its own tour guide. We always had our main tour guide (who also traveled with us in our bus), but at the Castle of Bornem the other tour guide was one of its residents, the Countess John de Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde, née Amélie d'Arschot. At the conclusion of the tour, there was a gift shop of sorts where you could purchase a book about the castle and then get it signed by the Count and Countess! It seemed a little bizarre that bona fide nobility engaged in such pedestrian activities, but perhaps nobility isn't what it used to be. (And here I was, in the market to buy a title.) The castle was lovely, however, although we did not see the current residential part of it. We did see several large stalls filled with an impressive collection of coaches.

The De Notelaer pavillion had a very interesting and pretty round room topped by a dome. The building was also interesting in that it sits on a steep hill—on one side, you can't see the dome, but you can see 4 or 5 floors of the building; on the other side, all you can see is the dome and the floor below it with the round room.

The Castle d'Ursel was not very castle-like, except for the moat; it was more of a very big house, with large rooms for entertainment. It was under renovation, in various stages of completion in different rooms. Once again, the grounds were very nice.

The tours were very authoritative, and sort of interesting. But at the same time, it was all very esoteric, and I'm not sure what if anything I'll remember from them! Still and all, the day was relatively unique, and we got to meet a bunch of other Fulbright staff, Fulbrighters, and their hangers-on (Naomi had the most hangers-on). Without solicitation, several people remarked to me how impressed they were with the girls' behavior—very nice to hear!