Dutch Cities - Netherlands, Oct. 3

Welcome to the Netherlands! I haven't had time to sit down and write for the last couple days, so I've got lots to say. It won't all be in this one post since I don't have a lot of time this evening, but I'll do my best to get everything out over the next few posts! This post is mainly just an overview of my trip into the country, and showing the cities I've visited over the last couple days. Here goes!

Muenster is a relatively small town, so I couldn't find a train that went direct to the Netherlands. And I'm staying with some family friends (Erika and Bas) in Dordrecht, which also isn't a very large town, so my trip required a few connections. The Eurail app is really good for this, since it will find trains from multiple rail companies to give you the easiest routes. The route I chose recommended buying a seat reservation for the second train, but I decided against it since the website claimed it wouldn't be very full.

I got to the station and got some breakfast. After waiting for about an hour for my train to arrive, I got to the platform to discover it had a delay of about 5 minutes. The route I chose had a transfer time of 10 minutes for the second train, meaning I'd only have 5 minutes to rush over. Not a problem, I thought, I've gotten good at navigating train stations in Germany!

That 5 minute delay soon became a 12 minute delay. I optimistically got on the first train anyways, just in case I could still somehow make the second train. But nope, I missed the second train by 2 minutes. Well, on the bright side, I didn't pay for the seat reservation!

Fortunately the Eurail pass makes it really easy to change your route on the fly without having to pay anything extra, so I just found a new route from that station, and off I went! Definitely happy I got the Eurail pass, otherwise that would have been a real pain to sort out!

Here's a collection of photos I got once we'd crossed into the Netherlands.

After crossing the border, the train staff came through offering everyone what looked like little bits of blank paper (I didn't look too closely). I wasn't sure what these were, and the staff member asked whether I was transferring at the central station. I was, so I wasn't given one of the papers, and I assumed I didn't need one.

I later learned that's not quite true. I got onto my last train just fine, and made it to the Dordrecht station without any problems. The main problem I ran into was getting out of the station. As I have since learned, every train station has these turnstiles for getting both in and out of the stations, a bit like the ones in England. These appear to use RFID to scan a card and open the gates.

I think this is where I needed that bit of paper they offered on the last train. My guess is those had RFID tags inside that would allow me to get out of the station. I figure they didn't give me one, because they thought I would buy another ticket at the station. But nope, I had the Eurail pass with a QR code that let me go anywhere, except through these RFID turnstiles!

I watched as everyone pulled out their transit cards and waltzed right on through, while I was stuck there without one. I was staring at them for a few minutes trying to find a QR code scanner, but you can see in the photo above that there's nowhere to scan a QR code. It turns out I was looking at the wrong turnstiles! There were a couple on the end that had the RFID scanner replaced with a QR code scanner, but I hadn't noticed these since they look almost identical from a distance. Took me about 5 minutes to figure that out, but then it accepted my Eurail pass without issue.

Then I was finally in the Netherlands! Erika and Bas picked me up from just outside the station, and we drove to their house. This neighborhood has rows of connected houses, so it's very compact. Each house is 2 floors plus a basement, and a small garden outside. Definitely not like the large single family homes of the US on large plots of land, but I find those excessive anyways. These are much more space efficient, which I appreciate. Erika and Bas have also made it quite modern on the inside, so I quite like it!

Yesterday we visited both Dordrecht and the Hague. It was fairly cloudy all day and a bit rainy, so it wasn't quite as pleasant as I'd hoped for. But it was still good to get acquainted with the area, and get guided by a local. While we were in Dordrecht, I got a warm stroopwafel which was really good! That's a bit dangerous, I could get addicted to those...

Here's a few pictures I took while in Dordrecht.

And here are pictures from The Hauge. I only really took photos of the government buildings for some reason, but I think they look nice at least.

We ate lunch at an English pub while in The Hauge, and I ended up getting a burger. It was pretty good, but something about the beef seems different than what I'm used to, similar to what I found in Germany. Someone had mentioned to me that burger meat here often isn't 100% beef, there's usually some other meats mixed in for whatever reason. So it ends up tasting a bit different. Not necessarily in a bad way, just different.

That was most of what we did yesterday. It rained for the rest of the day, so we decided to stay inside for the evening again. Today we went into Amsterdam, which ended up having nicer weather. I split from Erika and Bas to meet with a friend who lives in Amsterdam. We ate at an Italian restaurant and got pasta, which was quite good! After we finished, I explored around the city on my own to get a feel for it. Here's more photos!

I really do like how pedestrianized the city centers are, especially Amsterdam. It's really easy to get around places without feeling like you're going to get hit by cars all the time. There's also lots of public transit, so going longer distances is pretty easy.

I'm going to save my comments about commuting for the next post. I've definitely got a lot to say, but I'm getting tired and want to post at least something for today. I'm not sure when that post will come, but should be within a couple days. Take care!