Chapter 714: A Little Bit of Eindhoven and ‘s-Hertogenbosch

I recently did a spontaneous day trip to Eindhoven and ‘S-Hertogenbosch. I left the house in the middle of night to catch a coach to the airport, and all was good. It was only about 45 mins from London Stanstead to Eindhoven Airport. The captain was amazing, he cracked up some funny jokes ‘This flight will be flying all the way to Moscow.’ which had everyone shocked, ‘Now that I have your attention…’ he said as everyone giggled. ‘Please can I also remind you about turning off your mobile phones if you don’t want it confiscated by a member of staff and sold on eBay.’ it was brilliant to lighten the mood of an early flight.
I had a middle seat due to random allocation but it didn’t bother me since I was travelling alone. The gentleman next to me on the aisle seat kept falling towards my side and I was uncomfortable throughout the short flight as I tried to move away because I’m not generous enough to lend my shoulder to a stranger. The girl next to me went to the loo straight after the seatbelt sign went off, the man next to me didn’t respond, the girl shook him a few times and we both looked at each other worried as he wasn’t responding at all. But after she shook him with more force he finally woke up, she commented ‘WOW I wish I could sleep like you.’

As expected it was a very small airport. When the plane finally landed and we got off, we all had to walk quite a way to get to the passport control hall.

Just after passport control I bought a return airport ticket from the machine so I can catch the bus.

It was a short bus ride from the station to the airport. Around the back of the station are the giant flying pins!

It looks like a bicycle graveyard, there were so many!!

Going under the bridge tunnel, someone drew a cute bear on sticky notes. It reminded me a little bit of Pudsey the Bear.

By staring too long this made me dizzy.

St. Catherine’s Church

Pretty and colourful trash box

As if they couldn’t have enough bicycles.

Lovely statue in the mall

The globe building ‘America Today’ is actually a clothing shop full of the latest trends.

Grabbed a latte at the station.

And bought a return ticket to goto a nearby small city called ‘s-Hertogenbosch, aka Den Bosch which is easier to pronounce.

First impressions, compared to Eindhoven it has a more historic feel.

The dragon pillar just outside the station is freaking cool!

Rainbow pavements!

A very sweet statue of a couple just outside Primera and Dr. Beijing.

I stumbled into a market place full of interesting things, from clothing to food….But this store has cool antiques, fur and the pug-gentleman is so funny.

The flower market! Ive actually never seen so many flower inside a market place before. Usually I’d find flowers in supermarkets or small little florist shops back home.

An interesting building that reminded me of chocolate blocks.

I really like the dark coloured pointed roof tops, they all look like a hats.

A unicorn…

Pebbled streets with small restaurants, all lined up. Very cute.

St John’s Cathedral

I love seeing this kind architecture, the gothic design is very beautiful.

The interior is just as pretty.

Tall arched pillars, walls…

Stained glass windows…..

I sat down to take a break, whilst admiring the lovely design of the cathedral. Donated a euro to light up a candle and make a wish.

I really like the ceiling. It’s like being underneath tall trees.

Next up I headed towards the Noordbrabants Museum, I took about 2 hours here, taking my time exploring whilst the rain poured…

Got my ticket to the the Vincent van Gogh exhibition.

This was a very interesting dinosaur statue just outside the Arena shopping mall.

The river was so clam, there were a few narrow boat houses parked along the side. There was a man on his bicycle that had his fluffy grey cat sitting on the back , he rode off too quick before I could get a pic.

Horse carriage

On the ‘s-Hertogenbosch platform heading back to Eindhoven for some late lunch

Double decker trains! Very very clean and cosy. Although the journey was only about 20 mins each way, it was very interesting to go on a double-decker as we don’t have this back home.

A cute statue in the middle of the main shopping district in Eindhoven

A merry-go-round

I went to a lovely restaurant called Dadawan. I ordered steak with veggies that came with a side dish of chips and salad. I paid about 15 euros and it was very filling.

After food I went to grab a coffee and it was time to fly back home. Overall it was a lovely day well spent, and a great experience. I’ll be doing more short Europe trips…to Dublin, La Rochelle, Marseille, Oslo….But I next up ….Takayama…

—Tofu