Let’s say you have an old manure storage tank on your land, but don’t use it. Why not start a bed & breakfast in there? The owners of Longhorn Ranch decided to create a unique sleeping place. We were allowed to stay for a weekend among the North Holland cows.
The rural village of Akersloot is located about 30 kilometers north of Amsterdam. You have the Alkmaardermeer, an ice cream parlor for soft ice cream with endless dips and a unique sleeping place in a manure silo. This manure silo is located on the farm of the Kaandorp family. There are still cows – unfortunately no longhorns yet – but the manure storage tank was no longer needed. The family decided to build a bed & breakfast there.
There are two sleeping places in the bed & breakfast. A master bedroom and two sleeping lofts with two single beds each. The whole storage tank is decorated in ranch atmosphere, so with a cowhide on the floor, horns on the walls and a chandelier of antlers. Even the living room chairs are hairy and on the wall is an old school map of the United States.
But with bed & breakfast we actually say it wrong. You can order a barbecue here instead of breakfast. On gas, coal or wood. You can choose at the Longhorn Ranch. And that is not the only surprise for kitchen princes and princesses. In the kitchen there is a real Aga stove with two ovens. This cast iron dream for chefs is always warm and in the always hot ovens you can make the most delicious meals. That was perfect for our Moroccan tagine, the grilled vegetables and spare ribs that we had in house for this weekend.
Outside corona times you could also be in our capital in half an hour, but we stick to a national weekend. We spend the weekend walking on the beach of Castricum, the forest near Heiloo and through the rural Akersloot itself. The private terrace at the manure silo is also wonderful to relax in the spring sun. With a view of the cows of course.
