A night in this hotel feels like a week of vacation

When I get into the car with bottles of water and apples to head south, it immediately feels like a road trip freedom. Limburg always feels a bit un-Dutch when you live just under the wings of Amsterdam. After an hour and a half, we drove along a cobblestone path through the gates of the estate of Château de Raay in Baarlo and wow, what a little palace.

Château de Raay is part of the Pillows family, of which we are definitely fans, because: Zwolle, Ghent and also Amsterdam of course. But the Pillows Hotel in Limburg is like stepping into another world. The château is located by the Heldense Bossen, where you can take a hilly walk, and even a piece of the Pieterpad runs alongside. The garden feels like you are noble and can stroll around. The weather in Limburg is always a bit nicer, which adds to the vacation feeling. And the hospitality is enormous. The château was once owned by noble families and served from 1937 to ’99 as a residence for the mission and worship sisters of the Holy Family. Until it became a castle hotel.

As you might expect from me, I swung my suitcase into my (very spacious and beautiful) room and hurried to the terrace by the orangery, where bubbles and oysters with vinaigrette were ready as a warm welcome. I have truly never seen such finely chopped shallots as in that little bowl with vinaigrette.

By the way, I must make a special mention of host Peter. The restaurant that is incorporated into Château de Raay is De Tuin van de Barones. And Peter ensures that you lack nothing there. He advises on fine wine, is so enthusiastic about what chef Mathijs makes that you want to start eating during his story (which you don't do, because it's rude) and brings nothing but cheerfulness with him. We had lunch in the afternoon, think burrata and steak tartare, and in the evening we sat down for dinner. It went from a flammkuchen with Dutch new herring to pointed cabbage with curry to grilled watermelon with a goat cheese mousse. Every course and every wine was a gigantic celebration. Host Peter knows how to be hospitable, even at one and a half meters distance.

Just a note on that, because you might think that a one-and-a-half-meter outing is less fun, but that is not the case at Pillows or De Tuin van de Barones. In Limburg, there is still space, allowing the terrace to be set up widely, everyone can move freely, and apart from a disinfecting spray (which I find particularly fresh, corona or not), you don't see any walking directions or commands. Which makes a night, that feels like a week away, come very close to normal.

After a night in a super-sized wonderful bed, a bath in the ballroom of a bathroom, breakfast on a sun-drenched terrace, and a walk in a deliciously smelling forest, we drove home. It felt like we had been away for a week, while it was really only 24 hours. A tip, for anyone who has a day but wants a week.