Kasteels and D'Heeren Van Barelo on the River Maas

If there’s something that that is all over Europe besides waffels, it is castles. We visited several castles while in Europe, and one of the most interesting one is in Keverberg. Many castles were left in ruins, but this one was remodeled with some modern features like the solar panel rooftops.

This is the castle ruins in Valkenberg, NL.

Since most of the castles were either in ruined condition or completely repurposed to be something, it isn’t easy to get a sense for how the castles were originally used aside from the obvious perimeter to keep invaders out.

Kasteel de Keverberg next to the Maas.

 This is Kasteel de Keverberg, one of the more visually interesting castles. This castle sits on the River Maas. I would highly advise visiting a few castles to enjoy a space that has so much lost history. 

This is definitely not your run of the mill castle.

Inside the Kasteel's cafe.

 After our visit to Kasteel de Keverberg, my good friend, Yvonne, took us to a local restaurant that she and her family enjoys. D’Heeren Van Baerlo is a located on the River Maas as well. The restaurant had a selection of local beers available to go along with the food. 

Outside view of the Kasteel shows off large windows to let in the natural light.

 Most of us at the table decided to go with the prix fixe menu with hard decisions on each course. For my soup course, I selected the fish soup, listed as vis huisgerookt zalm kabeljauw on the menu. Roughly translated, it means fish house smoked salmon cod. This is one of the best soups I have ever had in my life. And I do not exaggerate. This soup was complex with layers of umani and the sea. Seriously, it was the best seafood based soup I have ever had. 

This is one of the most amazing soups I have ever had.

The next course I had was a beef tenderloin with mushrooms in a wonderfully delicious sauce. It was on the menu as: spies bavette champignons knoflook roseval salade chimichurri. I snuck some bites of other dishes at the table too, and they did not disappoint. 

Very delicious steaks.

 

Any more meats.

And one of the most interesting dishes of all is the dressed up tea for dessert. Dressed up tea includes a fresh mint tea, a Bailey’s liquor, cookie, and chocolate truffle. Tea in the United States just does not compared to this. 

Dressed up Yvonne with dressed up tea.

You can find D’Heeren Van Baerlo on Facebook and Twitter. You’ll probably need to rent a car to visit this part of the Netherlands, and it will be very much worth it. A big thanks to Yvonne for showing us around the Netherlands!