The one quirky bit of tour planning was that we had to travel back to Edinburgh from Newcastle for our flight to Weeze, near Eindhoven. With a ‘glass half-full’ attitude we enjoyed riding the South Shields metro into the Newcastle train station, and imagined my mother as a young woman using this service many times as she returned home for visits during the war. Newcastle station is vast and venerable. Train for Edinburgh was on time and the flight from Edinburgh to Weeze was uneventful, except for the entertainment provided by the young woman trying, as per Ryanair’s regulations, to fit her mid size leather purse into her already full carry-on hard shell case …. complete with boyfriend stepping on the case while she tried to fasten the latches with part of the purse still squelching out one edge. This happened first at check-in and then again at security.
Ryanair keeps prices down in many ways. One way is by flying into smaller airports, rather than major ones, so our flight landed in Weeze (pronounced ‘VAYzuh’ as in ‘beta’), an old RAF base near Dusseldorf, about 40 minute drive from Eindhoven, Netherlands. So, technically, Germany was on our itinerary as well. The strange thing was a lack of border control at the Nederland / Deutschland border.
Our friend Steve picked us up, greeting us with welcome cold drinks, and off we went in the shockingly hot temperature….the first warmth of our trip, to a small town called Nuenen. (NOO-nen)
Steve and Linda were now our third set of marvellously welcoming hosts. Linda had just had knee surgery 10 days before our arrival. It was difficult to convince her to rest and look after herself rather than be concerned with us. We had a lovely evening, mostly chatting about musical connections we have in common. Luckily, our protests didn’t stop Linda from making a fabulous tiramisu for dessert. Thankfully, we saved room for it after diving unrestrainedly into Steve’s delicious homemade lasagne! Mike says, did I mention the tap in the kitchen that dispenses fresh Heinekin draft from a small keg? Hmmm…no wonder clothes are feeling a wee bit tight…
Speaking of clothes… how nice to be in a home with a washing machine again! Thanks for the laundry, Linda… sure beats hand washing in the hotel sinks. Netherlands is as flat as we imagined it and, in my opinion, is perfect for biking! Everywhere there are bike lanes or even dedicated bike roads, so we enjoyed exploring the sweet little town of Nuenen where Steve and Linda live, on bikes borrowed from our hosts. Aside from the fact that it was 35 degrees outside, we really enjoyed ourselves. Van Gogh lived and worked in Nuenen for a few years and we rode past his former home out to the windmill that appears in his paintings. There is a statue of him in a town square, and little information kiosks scattered through the area, as Neunen is developing tourism around Van Gogh.
A second trip, with Steve the next day, blessedly cooler, was out to a WW2 cemetery for foreign service soldiers, Mierlo Cemetary1939-1945. Most of the soldiers were from Britain, but we found five Canadian graves. There is another larger cemetery nearby with many more Canadian graves, but it was too far to bike there.
Steve (violin) and Linda (viola) both play in a professional orchestra in the nearby town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (pronounced ‘den-BOSSSE’, believe it or not). We had a chance to visit with Steve, who showed us the three most important sites: the Cathedral, the little house over the canal where Steve and Linda first lived, and the bakery that makes the best Bossse Bollen, a local specialty that’s kind of like a a big chocolate-covered cream puff. Fabulously rich crème and chocolate; barely legal!
Linda is off work with her knee op these days, but Steve had a rehearsal the next day and he brought us to Eindhoven to the hall to listen in on part of it. Great orchestra. Very nice modern hall. They were rehearsing Gershwin Piano Concerto with a French guest pianist. Orchestras in Holland, as in Denmark, are federally funded, and in a case of deja vu, the day we arrived was a day of protest over a government bill to reduce funding to all arts organizations - musicians the world over have so much in common. There was a huge public protest in Eindhoven as well as other cities, but to no avail. The cuts will go ahead over the course of the next year or two, with organizations left to figure out how to cover their deficits. Steve and Linda’s orchestra may have to amalgamate with another orchestra, which would mean a whole lot of musicians out of work. We wish them all well and hope that we won‘t be humming “You Don‘t Know What You‘ve Got ‘Til It‘s Gone“ one more time. Perhaps the wealthy Phillips family, of Phillips Electronics will sponsor them. Phillips is based in Eindhoven...
From Weeze a direct Ryanair flight, to the little airport of Ronchi Legionnari, just west of Trieste. We are at last in Italy but people here look much more Eastern European than Italian (to us). In fact this sliver of Northern Adriatic coast looks geographically like it should be part of Slovenia but as usual, borders are set to the advantage of military victors throughout the ages.
A quick taxi to our small hotel, and about 9:00 p.m. we sat down in the hotel restaurant to the best pasta course to date - and I’m writing this after two weeks in Italy! Simple, but the quality of the ingredients came close to platonic ideals: tagliatelle, porcini, olive oil, garlic in perfect balance. A little nightcap of local grappa to steady my nerves for driving a rent-a-car in Italy the next day.
Next morning, back at the airport, after an hour and a half of glacial-paced processing we were handed the keys to our ride - a brand new VW Polo (Like a 4-door VW Golf hatchback). We were the first clients to hire this car and looked forward to a clean vehicle and hoped not to be the users assigned to discover any new-car glitches.
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