It’s been quiet around here for over ten days, but we’ve been busy exploring new places. Namely, the Netherlands. I’d been there with my host family more than a few weekends during my exchange year 1992-93, but this was my first trip since then and Sarah’s very first.
The itinerary in brief:
- Depart Regensburg via rental car, arrive Heidelberg ≤ 3 hours later, eat and sleep there, pick up pals
Stroll around the Heidelberg castle grounds in anticipation of a long car trip
Take every opportunity to marvel at Dutch language starting around Venlo- Arrive in the Hague, mistake a random Dutch pedestrian for our rental apartment contact person, check in
- Seek out exotic cuisine thanks to Dutch colonialism, then crash out
Delve into Delft, get a good look at Gouda
Do the spring ritual thing on Easter Sunday at the Keukenhof gardens, get Pannekoeken by the sea in Noordwijk, look a big pile of Balkan meats right in the eye- Drive down to Antwerpen for a local’s tour and perspective (thanks Marie and Neil!) and scrounge at the apartment that evening for dinner
Last chance before departure day: Kinderdijk windmill site, Rotterdam for lunch, Zoutelande for the evening coffee break, drive back to Hague before the grocery stores all close to stock up on Stroopwafels
Head back to Heidelberg (down the other side of the Rhine this time) with a lunch stop in Maastricht (check out that weird red tower!), drop off the Heidelbergers in the town named for them, return home to Regensburg, unload, tank up, drop off, walk home
It was a great trip. Here’s the route we took, more or less.
Here are the slideshows:
Gouda & Delft:
Keukenhof flower gardens:
Kinderdijk Windmills:
Looking at the route on the map kind of makes me dizzy!!
Yeah, I didn’t check the odometer after the trip (meant to, but forgot…we were tired), but Google Maps says that route is almost 2400km. I didn’t want to jinx it by mentioning it at the time, but it seemed like the traffic jams were always in the opposite direction, no matter where we were headed. That was cool.
I think it’s missing Lisse & Noordwijk so would be even more dizzy-making (and long)! You’re right about the traffic jams – good thing you didn’t jinx it.
The bike pod is cool.
Yeah, I thought that was really, really neat. Just this year I found out there’s a bike cage in a parking deck near my office, so my bike doesn’t HAVE to sit out in the weather rusting (unless I am running late on my morning commute and need to park it right in front of the door).
I think that is the cage near where Matthias’ new office is. I just assumed you always parked there.
Nope, actually, it’s a cage closer to where his old office was, in the public parking deck across from O19. I just found out in like January or something that there’s a cage in there specifically for employees of our company (and that a key is required, but anyone can apply for it). Since we moved to that office park from the old one a couple years ago, I’d been parking my bike in the racks directly in front of our building, which is convenient, but not weatherproof. This new (to me) cage is almost as convenient and sheltered from rain/snow/whatever. I just have to remember that it’s there and available.
This makes me seriously jealous! Funny, I was very close to spending the Easter break in the Netherlands, too, but we decided on Budapest and Barcelona instead (and how different are THOSE two cities from each other???).
Was it insanely crowded there? And I’m shocked and dismayed that you didn’t do a stopover in Dortmund/Essen on your way there. ;-)
Puts a whole new spin on a B’n’B getaway.
Nothing seemed overly crowded to me in any parts of the Netherlands we visited. Even parallel parking on the street near our rental apartment was pretty easy (thanks to my 3 parking coaches). People were out and about in all kinds of weather all over the holiday weekend and Tuesday, but we never felt trapped or squished.