GH Euro Trip: the slightly crazy Villa Augustus!
Posted:31 August 2014
Our only drizzly day in the Netherlands was made so much better by our arrival at the extraordinary Villa Augustus in Dordrecht; yet another new experience to be enjoyed on our Garden House trip earlier this August.
Tumbling out of our coach, grappling with umbrellas and waterproofs (just in case!) we were confronted by an extraordinary building, a robust brick late-19th-century water tower converted in 2007 into a delightfully quirky 37-room hotel. We certainly like the sound of the rooms here – one, The Giardino Secreto, boasts panoramic views and a secret garden with a gazebo on the roof!
In the grounds the Vegetable Garden Hall and the Watershed Hall retain their industrial character and house the very large and super-busy open kitchen, restaurant and market; the very heart of Villa Augustus. Here guests sit on a large terrace overlooking the day’s menu to see what organic ingredients have been picked fresh from the garden and have been whisked to the kitchen to be prepared.
The tower is surrounded by gardens – over four acres apparently to the front a beautifully restrained and formal Italianate box parterre with views to the Dordrecht waterways in the distance, and to the back, the much more informal and spacious organic kitchen gardens with its rows of trained fruit trees, glasshouses and exuberant mix of vegetables and annual flowers.
This is where we found inspiration whether it was a squash happily nestling in a box hedge, sedums covering a pile of rough building detritus, or the extraordinary way in which the gardeners here tie their courgettes to a stake and grow upwards (we are definitely trying that idea!) we really appreciated their very different sensibility and approach to design.
What a great place this would be to book for a special anniversary or treat, we loved it!
Villa Augustus, Oranjelaan 7, 3311 DH Dordrecht
Tel: 078 63.93.111 / Email: info@villa-augustus.nl
