You know open air museums? I’m talking about the kinds that collect all kinds of historic and old buildings across the country (or replicate them), and create a little town out of them. Scandinavia is really big on them, but the Netherlands has them too, you just have to venture out of the biggest cities. One of the prettiest ones is the Archeon in Alphen Aan den Rijn, which features a collection from 10000 BC till 1400 AD. One of my favourite parts in it is its row of wooden houses from around 1400 AD, because they can offer you a glimpse of what nearly all the Dutch cities looked like before the bricks took over in the 17th Century. Amsterdam has two houses who also are built in this style, something I’ll talk about in a different time.

Every winter, the Archeon picks a weekend to hosts the Midwinterfair. It’s basically a medieval festival that invites all kinds of stands and musical bands to perform, and it’s one of the liveliest times for the park of the year. This year, it had the amazing luck of taking place during the worst snowfall the country has experienced in years. The pictures, they speak for themselves.