Day 50: Day Trip to Nijmegen!

Its hard to believe I have been in the Netherlands for 50 days already! Its also hard to comprehend how gorgeous Nijmegen, Netherlands is!

Nijmegen is the story of today's blog, as it was the feature of the weekend. Early this morning (okay, it was 10am!), Bali (Singapore), Mathea (Slovenia), Maddie (USA), Audrey (USA), two of Mathea's friends visiting from Slovenia and I all boarded the 10:09 train to Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands. A relatively short train ride away, we reached Nijmegen about 11:15am and headed to the VVV to see what we could see (see see!). The VVV is the tourist information center located near the central train station in every city in the Netherlands. We got a 45-euro cent map there and asked the woman at the counter where things were located. Map in hand, we headed for the first destination of the day: a real Dutch windmill!

A brief walk down the busy roads of Nijmegen, we came across the old windmill. Built in 1849, this poor "molen" as it is called in Dutch no longer had the "sails", as you can see in the picture. We had been told at the VVV that we could go up inside and see the windmill, but as it turns out, this was not the case. We did get to go into the store in the lower portion of the mill and sample some delicious Dutch cheese. Yum yum!

We then headed back towards the city centre. We stopped in some shops and bakeries to look around, and walked through the massive Saturday morning flea market taking place in the City Centre. Then we came upon the beautiful square, walled in by an array of gorgeous buildings. Here also was St. Stephen's Cathedral, which I had seen on the internet and hoped to visit while in Nijmegen. We got to go inside and take our own self-guided tour (with English paper guides) of the Cathedral. It was really interesting, as the Cathedral had been partially bombed in 1944. The tower was hit, but it was later repaired. The Cathedral was gorgeous, but much less gaudy than some of the others I have seen so far!

Next, we decided to find some lunch! We ended up at this nice little restaurant that served soup, sandwiches, warm beverages and the like. I ordered a cup of Dutch pea soup, something I am really starting to enjoy over here in the NL! After a warm and tasty lunch, we headed down toward the Waalkade, Nijmegen's waterway, and according to the 'net, the "Busiest Waterway in Europe". It was breathtaking! The clear skies and sunny weather assisted the amazing view we had of the waterway and the architecturally-genius bridges.

We took the opportunity to take numerous photos and enjoyed the view for a few moments before heading into the Velorama- the bicycle museum in Nijmegen! This was another find on the internet, which we thought would be totally worth it, as we all know how important cycling is in the NL! We toured the museum and took some great pics of the funny-looking bicycles that we saw. The museum consisted of three-stories of bicycles that told the story of the development and modernization of bikes from the 19th century to the present. It was super-cool to see and funny to think that people actually rode these things! We couldn't even begin to imagine ourselves on some of them!

Coming out of the museum, we decided to explore the ruins of the city right behind it. As mentioned earlier, Nijmegen is considered the oldest city in the Netherlands (with Maastricht closely following). So there is a lot of history here, although much of it has been subjected to war and destruction. There remains a few ruins, which we got to see today. On top of  a large hill, there is a lone remaining Chapel, dating back to 1400 and the rein of Charlamagne. We could not go in, but we saw the exterior of this monument and took some great pics from the hill it rested on. Then we explored another nearby ruin, before heading over to this massive bridge and archway (where we took more pictures).

Afterwards, we headed back into the city centre. We walked through the market again and looked in some more shops. Maddie and Audrey left to get back to campus for the evening affairs, while the rest of us stuck around to see a bit more of Nijmegen. We wanted to find one more place- the Commanderie van St. Jan, which is a coffee-roasting house, brewery and distillery. After asking directions, we found it and went inside. We were a bit disappointed, as it was too busy for us to actually sit down and have a beer or cup of coffee, but we got to see it at least!

Finally, we walked back through the city centre towards the train station to head back to campus. We bought snacks for the ride back before boarding the train for our scenic ride home to Tilburg. As usual, it felt good to get back to the warmth of our rooms in Verbs. And (as usual) we all met up for dinner later. Mathea pulled out all the fixings from the tacos she and the girls had eaten the evening before for dinner. We enjoyed some food and chatted for awhile before calling it a night.

Nijmegen was a beautiful city! I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this small, unassuming, historical town in the Netherlands. It was clear weather and we had good company. I'd call it a good day :)