Our trip to Valkenburg, Holland begins with a lovely photo of a Dutch flower shop. We visited the Valkenburg Castle's Velvet Caves Christmas Market. To see more about where we were, you can visit www.kasteelvalkenburg.nl. It's a pretty good site. 

Traditional wooden shoes were for sale in abundance on the streets of Valkenburg. 

You can see part of the castle way up on top of the hill. 

This leads away from the castle out toward the main street. 

Part of the castle. 

Welcome to the Velvet Caves! 

Small recesses in the walls are decorated with various Christmas themes. 

This one was titled "Mexico". We like the huge poinsettias! 

Here is a general view of the shopping. Some booths are set up like this one, and many are "built into" the natural openings in the stone 

Mr. and Mrs. Dines taking a moment to pose for the camera :) 

Christmas carolers add festive music. 

Various murals can be seen scattered throughout the caves. 

During the German occupation in WWII, the caves served as shelter for Jewish people, locals and American troops. The walls bear many names, dates and home towns of the American soldiers who were here. 

Here is the name of a soldier from Streator, IL. 

This concludes our tour of the Velvet Caves.