Velvet Caves

 

Valkenburg.. what is in Valkenburg? The Velvet caves and castle ruins (amongst other things!) So what did we do? Nothing. Only joking! We went along for the tour in the caves and walked around the castle ruins reading the information along the way. Today was another hot day, and due to this budget thingie we biked into town. It was downhill all the way into town, but this of course meant we had a very arduous and hot ride back to the van.

 

As we got to the caves and standing in front of the entrance you could already feel the difference in temperature. We were told the caves were a mere 12 degrees and that is the temperature they stayed. To me, it felt like the caves were about 5 degrees due to the weather outside. The tour was conducted in Dutch and Paul and I received a printout in English about what was being discussed. Unfortunately we did feel a little left out during the tour as people would ask questions and there was a lot more being explained in Dutch than what was written on our sheet. But Paul and I were the only ones that didn't speak Dutch, and they may not get many tourists that only speak English. The other people seemed to be enjoying themselves anyway!

 

We were not told about the history of the caves, as the sheet given to us only detailed the story behind the pictures inside the caves. But from what I later read, the caves were mined from around 1050 to 1886 and there is more than five kilometres of passageway. The caves were connected to the castle, as the men living in the castle would escape through the passages and attack their enemies from behind.

 

A sad fact we did read about was in August 1993 2 boys snuck into the caves. Their flashlight broke and they tried to find their way back in the dark. They lost their way and lost each other. Both the boys died in the cave from hypothermia and dehydration. To help us understand the total darkness of the cave, the guide left us alone in complete darkness for couple minutes (yes he did explain this in English as well) and man it was scary!



This picture depicts a block cutter taking a break from his heavy work.

This picture depicts the marriage between Alexis of Cleves and Walram. After the ceremony, they went to their bridal chamber where Walram's brother was waiting for them. He was jealous that Alexis had chosen Walram over him and killed them both.

This depicts the battle between Walram de Rosse, ruler of Valkenburg, and the Count of Vendome.

This drawing is a good illustration of the castle before its final destruction in 1672.

A discovery of a jaw of a mosasaurus was made in 1770 and this relief was made after the discovery.

 

Sitting on the hill of the castle ruins

Some of the ruins

He had been naughty...