Travelogue: Netherlands - Eindhoven

In the second leg of my summer vacation, I had gone to Netherlands where we had a small reunion of friends from my MSc days in Germany. Our host was staying in Eindhoven, so this small city was a rendevous point for all of us who were coming from different parts of Europe. When my RyanAir flight was hovering about the Eindhoven airport before landing, it was a deja-vu of sorts to me. Each time I have travelled to any city in North Europe, I have always been welcomed by bad weather. Maybe its a coincidence, but be it Eindhoven, Dublin or London, always its rainy clouds and grey weather welcoming me! As I had jetted from a hot (40-degree something) Athens to Netherlands, this change of climate and temperature was not a very pleasant experience.

Eindhoven is one of the largest cities in the south of Netherlands and is heavily industrialised. It is overshadowed by the presence of Philips all over. As a tourist, I guess this city has nothing great to offer and I believe had it not been for our friend none of us would have been there. However, I found it to be a good place to work as the city is quite comfortable and well maintained. The initial vibes I got about the Dutch people are that they are quite friendly people and very open to foreigners. The most striking feature about the Dutch is their height. The average height is quite above average from the other Europeans. While walking in the malls or streets I was often awed by the heights of the girls and ladies, not to mention the men. The Dutch are a very healthy looking, atheletic and fit people. I later realised one of the reasons is the regular cycling they do. All over the city there are well marked cycling tracks along with the driving and pedestrian tracks. Luckily, we were visiting Netherlands during the sale period. Couldnt get the reason for the sale in almost all the stores (not a Christmas or Easter period now), but there were some great discounts and all shopping-bees would have loved to be there during this period!