Today was our last full day in the Netherlands, and it ended up being the perfect combination of exploring the country a little more and spending time with family, which was the thing that drew us here in the first place. We were spending the day with mom‘s cousin Ton, and his wife Lenie. We had seen them at the reunion last week, but they are both very special to mom and she wanted to spend more time with them. They had been kind enough to invite us to their house for lunch today and then were going to take us on some additional sightseeing in Den Bosch.
We were up at a reasonable time, and had a nice slow start to the morning. We walked over to a local bakery, where we had a light breakfast before heading out. The drive up to their house was only about 25 minutes, and we were of course early. We spent a little bit of time driving around the town, just to kill some time. Doing so we noted that there were all sorts of US and UK flags hung up alongside the Dutch flags on the streets. We later discovered that September 18 is a big holiday here where they celebrate the freedom of the Netherlands from the Germans in World War II. The US and UK forces played a big part of that and they remember it every September 18. We were just missing the big festivities by a couple of weeks.
Hanging out with Lenie and Ton at their lovely home. The gardens out back were a highlight!
Checking out the back garden.
After some sight seeing, we managed to get to their house on time, and we had a nice couple of hours chatting and catching up. They served us a lovely lunch, and then we headed into the city to do some touring around.
The first stop once we were back in Den Bosch was to revisit the huge cathedral in the centre of town. I did not mind going back at all as the place is spectacular, and as today was a little brighter than our previous visit, the incredible stained glass inside the church was even more beautiful than before. We spent another hour wandering around the cathedral, visiting and seeing some things that we had missed on the first visit. As I said, well worth the return trip!
After that, we walked over to a part of town we had not seen, and had a drink on a patio.
Relaxing on the patio!
A very fun downspout - very creative.
One of the fun things about the city is that there are these fun sculptures all over the place. We saw quite a few as we explored by boat on the underground canals.
Ton and Lenie had booked us a boat tour of the city, which actually takes you through a series of canals that are in many places directly under the streets of the city. Back in the middle ages they started building houses over the canals and that continued to this day. The actual centre of town has a full set of canals, running directly under it.
The boats loaded and headed out from a very unassuming small side street.
Once loaded on the boat, it was immediately off and under the city!
We had a prime spot at the front of the boat.
Hidden below the old city is a canal network called the Binnendieze, which once spanned 22 km. It started out as a regular river, the Dommel, running through the city in medieval times. Due to a lack of space in the city, people started building their houses and roads over the river. Later, the Binnendieze functioned as a sewer and fell into disrepair. In recent decades, the remaining sixth part of the old waterway system has been renovated.
As we headed out, immediately you could see the canal going under all the various side streets and buildings. Plus, another view of my fun little lizard.
The map of the boat tour under and around the city.
The tour was about an hour long and well it was done entirely in Dutch. Ton was kind enough to do some translations along the way and fill in some of the stories. It was very cool gliding on these electric narrow boats through the tight canals under the city. Partway through the tour we popped out into the bigger canal that runs outside the old city fortifications. We then almost immediately went back into the narrow canals amongst and under the buildings. It was a pretty great tour. We were really appreciative of them booking it for us.
After the canal tour, we wandered through the city a little bit further checking out the old City Hall and then heading back to the car to drive back to their house. We were all going out for dinner that evening and they had booked a restaurant that was halfway between their house and where we were staying, so we had to drive there together.
The City Hall
One last view of the cathedral.
Before we did that they took us to their local castle to check that out quickly as we had a little bit of time before dinner. This castle doesn’t have a long history, as it was only built in the 1800s by some super rich dude who wanted a castle. But it’s still pretty beautiful even if it is now just a wedding venue. There was a wedding going on as we were wandering around the outside of it, it was still pretty neat to see.
While not very old, it is still an impressive building. I could live there…
After that, we drove we had lots of time to continue to catch up and hear great stories and generally had a really nice evening. After dinner, we drove back to our apartment and got ourselves organized to head home the next day.
We had a lovely dinner out, thanks to Ton and Lenie. They have been amazing hosts and made us feel so welcome during the trip. Hopefully it will not be too long before we are back.
Night was falling on the cathedral in Eindhoven, as we headed back to the apartment to pack for our departure the next day. It had been a long, amazing visit to the Netherlands, and I was so fortunate to have been able to spend it with Mom and Mackenzie.
On our last morning, we had a very early start and were greeted with a brilliant sunrise, full of colour as we headed to the airport, and then on home.