"My trip to Eindhoven" Eindhoven Travelogue by njtourist

Rick had a business trip to Eindhoven and asked if I wanted to go with him. Fortunately conditions were right with work and his parents could babysit!

We took the Continental Flight 70 out of Newark destined for Amsterdam, departing at 10:00pm on Monday. Fortunately we were able to fly Business/First so the 8 hour flight wasn't as bad as it could have been.

The first half of the trip consisted of the flight attendants constantly bringing food. After that I watched a movie on my personal console (Down to Earth with Chris Rock), then reclined and went to sleep.

We drove to Eindhoven from the airport. We were lucky enough to get a nice Volvo automatic instead of the microscopic manual car we were expecting. We got to see one windmill on the way down.

We walked around the downtown in Eindhoven. It appeared deserted but on Friday's and Saturday's it is wall to wall people at all the bars/cafes.

We had dinner with Rick's coworkers Frank and Patrina at a restaurant called Da Nella's. Frank speaks italian and helped us decipher the menu.

Next on our agenda was visiting where Carin works, Indoor Sportcentrum Eindhoven. I saw her office, some of her coworkers, and got a tour of the whole building. When we were there it was set up to do standardized testing (hundreds of desks spaced a few feet apart). You can also play tennis, indoor soccer, or whatever there.

Next we went to the Fortis Bank to try to pay that parking ticket, since the parking authority has an account there, evidently. Carin helped me talk to the teller to work things out. The teller didn't have a money drawer, but instead sent all money up in a tube (like the drive-up teller).

We were getting hungry as it was near 3:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch. We tried to go to a Greek restaurant that Carin knows but they weren't open. So we got some French Fries (I think they call them Belgian Fries {why is it that no country wants to take responsibility for these greasy delights?}). But you can get toppings on your fries! Okay....Carin had the "special" ( with Ketchup, Mayonaise and Onions)(see photo) and I had mine with Satay (Peanut) Sauce. She also got us some dark beers and we had a great snack while sitting outdoors.

Carin called her friend Harry van der Heyden the painter. She announced that we would be going over to his house. He was very gracious and gave us a tour of his home. His walls are adorned with his artworks. He took the time to explain a few of them to us. He uses some of the same symbols in his works: cubes (representing "order") and human forms.

After the tour he invited us out to his backyard and we had a beer (well, Carin did, the one with the french fries was enough for me!) He even has paintings on his shed out in the back yard.

Harry asked me in the direct Dutch way "Why are you here?"...trying to understand what circumstances had caused me to be here in his house. :-)

Rick got out of work early on thursday and beat me back to the hotel. They said I could make other arrangements for dinner (since we had already been to DaNello's twice). All the suggestions I had received from Carin were a bit out of walking distance and I didn't have time to investigate any other restaurants. Patrina called to make reservations (yes you need them because you occupy the table for the entire evening) but they said they were full. Frank called and for Frank, they could squeeze us in. Squeeze us they did. The only available table was outside. It was a bit chilly and it looked like rain. We weren't sure what would come first, the rain or the food. After an hour (still no food) we got moved inside. There was a table of 10 in there and that didn't help things. Finally we got our entrees (getting closer to 11:00). We skipped dessert because of the hour, but the waiter insisted on bringing after dinner drinks on the house. Mmmm, free Grappa! :-p (like free turpentine - gee, thanks!)

Since Rick has finished up with work, we were off to Amsterdam via Delft.

<a href="http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/.150130/article/176/2/?s=O"="_blank">
Click here </a>to continue to Delft

Wednesday I was on my own. DAF is the 'Van Doorne's Aanhandwagen Fabriek' (Van Doorne's Trailer Factory). It was founded in 1928. They manufacture trucks, and in the past, cars. The museum is housed in a restored brewery. You can see the first workshop which is the same today as it was then. In addition, you canlearn about the 'riding raincoat (a one person car), the royal beach car (the DAF kini), the very first, small DAF that rolled off the production line. The museum has a total of 120 cars, trucks, rally cars/trucks, and delivery vans. The car shown in the picture is the Riding Raincoat.

I had lunch at the Heuvel Galerie (a shopping mall) at a French Bistro.

After, I walked over to the <a href="http://www.dse.nl/kempenland/"="_blank">Museum Kempenland</a>. It is located in a former church. This museum shows the cultural history of the city and region, Brabant painting, photography and fine sculpture from the 19th and 20th centuries.

We had dinner at Da Nella's again with Frank and Patrina.

On Thursday I met up with Carin from virtualtourist.com. My e-friend Karen (from my email list of parents Jessie's age), who is Dutch, referred me to the Eindhoven webpage at virtualtourist.com. There I couldn't help but noticed Carin's (catnl) information, particularly where she offered to show visitors to her city around. I emailed her and she agreed to meet with me and give me a tour.

See also <a href="http://ebags.virtualtourist.com/m/.75179/article/1281/41/?s=g"="_blank">Carin's Pictures of Stacey in Eindhoven</a>

First thing we did was walk over to Carin's storage area to store her bike She also stores donations for her charity <a href="http://welcome.to/kido"="_blank">Kido: Childhelp in the Ukraine</a>

We walked along the canal and <a href="http://ebags.virtualtourist.com/m/?s=f&showpic=/p/.75179/a-41-1-9.jpg&mn=catnl&pn=Eindhoven"="_blank">stopped in at a graphic artist friend of hers.</a>

After that, we walked back into the center of town to rent a bike for me, stopping to look at the <a href="localhttp://ebags.virtualtourist.com/m/?s=f&showpic=/p/.75179/a-41-20-3280.jpg&mn=catnl&pn=Eindhoven"="_blank">hot spots</a> along the way.</a>

We looked at the Trainstation and then stopped for a snack. Carin convinced me to have the traditional snack of coffee and applecake.

Out front is a statue of Anton Philips, founder of the <a href="http://www.philips.com"="_blank">Philips</a> company.

Next was a trip to the post office(PTT). They are very organized there. You take a number, then when your number comes up, a sign tells you which counter to go to. I was trying to mail postcards, get a cellphone refill phone card, and pay Rick's parking ticket from his last trip to the Netherlands. We got the phone card and the postcards mailed, but the parking ticket had to be paid at a bank, since they didn't have a post office bank number.

We went over to St. Cathrein Stadkerk (St. Catherine's Church). We ran into a couple of Turkish tourists in there as well.

We bicycled along a lovely wooded path along the canal.

Next we bicycled to the Genneper Watermolen (Watermill) and right next door the Milleu Educatie Centrum (Environment Education Center) The watermill is actually a pet/feed store and we went inside. Carin asked the owner if we could go up in the loft and look at the millworks because I am "from New Jersey". We went up and he was also nice enough to turn the mill on. He didn't know alot of english but he mentioned "Wildwood" and "Chicago". All I could do was nod!

The Environmental Education Center next door has a natural history museum, a skeleton of the woolly mammoth, and children's activities (all about the badger). We sat out side the watermill and had a soda and Carin chatted with another guy who was sitting outside. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but at one point they discussed tourist's perceptions of the Netherlands: All tulips, windmills, quasi-legal drugs and the red light district!

After that we bicycled to the Frater Simon Deltour Park . It was mostly wild but there were different habitats that were hard to tell apart. There was a nice pond, as shown in the photo.

Next was the Prehistoric Open Air Museum. Fortunately Carin knew someone in charge of the museum so we could get in to look around without paying. The idea is to show what daily life was like during the Iron Age. We saw school children wearing "prehistoric" that they had made, making clay amulets, and baking some kind of bread. They sleep in the thatched buildings covered with wool blankets. Carin used to work here spinning wool and making the blankets. They do have regular running water and bathrooms, however. There were also nice flower and herb gardens.