Amsterdam Day 90: Fort Bourtange

The responsible family members were still out of town so the less responsible of us took off on another day trip, this time to the far northeast of the Netherlands. It was so far northeast that we had to go into Germany in order to come back into the Netherlands. But this time we picked some from friends for the journey. 

Here is an overhead shot of the Fort that we went to. 

Fort Bourtange (Dutch: Vesting Bourtange) is a star fort in the village of Bourtange, Groningen, Netherlands. It was built in 1593 under the orders of William the Silent, the Prince of Orange. Its original purpose was to control the only road between Germany and the city of Groningen, which was controlled by the Spaniards during the time of the Eighty Years' War.

After a longer drive than we anticipated (bad traffic, lunch, and bathroom breaks), we finally arrived at the fort. It has several cool moats and then earthen walls. And of course the first thing the kids did was climb the fortifications. The fort didn't have a chance with these kids.

The cool thing about this fort is that there is an actual village thriving within its walls with cute cafes and museums. I feel bad for its residents though because these kids were loud. I wouldn't have blamed them if they had kicked us out. 

After wandering the village, the walls, and the cannons, we wandered into a little museum. I did not have a lot of expectations as the other little museums here were kind of bland. But this museum may have been the best little museum ever. 

You take a right into the first room and there is a bird that you can ride on. Between the 4 kids, we probably spent 30 minutes on this alone. Thankfully there were no other kids in the museum. The next room over had a large movie describing the battles. More for the older kids. 

But the room next to that had the signature feature, the battle room.

Again, the village was so beautiful and peaceful, until we showed up. The size of that open mouth indicates the decibel level of the sound. Times that by 4. 

And of course any Dutch town would not be complete without a windmill. Here is a good view of the inner moat, the earthen wall, the windmill, and a small part of the village.