"Visiting Facilitair at Brabanthallen " a 's-Hertogenbosch Travel Page by gordonilla

During a visit to the Netherlands two colleagues and I travelled from Delft to Den Bosch, to attend the annual Facilitair at the Brabanthallen. This is an exhibition which is a show place for a range of disciplines and services which are utilised and employed within the Facilities Management working environment.

We travelled from Delft to Den Bosch by train, and it was a journey of about 1.5 hours and we had to change at Breda ( brief 3 minute dash for the connection). The trains were comfortable and double decked.

Sadly when we travelled back we appeared to be given bad information by Dutch Railways staff. We retraced our route to the station, bought some tickets and asked which train to get - we were advised to catch the train to Utrecht and change for Delft. At Utrecht we were then told to catch the next train for Rotterdam Central Station and change there for Delft. This we did - the train was full of people travelling from Utrecht to Rotterdam and there was not an empty seat on the train - we had to stand for the 30 minute journey and then remain statnding for the further 15 minutes to Delft. It was quite unusual being in such close proximity to so many people who spoke a language totally alien to us.

It seems that the main station is very busy and had several lines running through the station. It was fairly modern and had a range of shops and other facilities available to the traveller.

However, as the picture may show, from the outside it looks rather dull and dreary. You should note, that there also appeared to be a great deal of construction activity around the station at the time and this may be a reason for the impression of being dull.

Our programme organiser had advised us that the walk from the station to the exhibition hall would be only about 10 minutes or so. I have to say it was much longer than that or I suppose that could be as a result of not really knowing where it was located.

Although the day was rather cold and dull, the walk was pleasant enough although it was a walk which passed many houses and offices. The one inetresting point was that most homes en route appeared to have large front windows, which people looked through - or at least we did. These rooms were split into two categories - 1. Family rooms which were lived in and had that untidy look or 2. They were like rooms seen in House and Garden magazine (nothing out of place).

The exhibition hall was large and there were many companies in attendance. There was a good atmosphere and although security staff were present it was very relaxed.