The Netherlands and Germany - A memoir

The Netherlands and Germany - A memoir

It was on the fall of December 2007. As i remember, my brother Mr.Sekhar LK invited me to his house in The Netherlands on second week of December. Well, no one can resist a trip to The Netherlands when you can pull out a free stay and food (just kidding!). Being a good choice for a weekend from Belgium; I chose to take on that for 29th and 30th of December.

29/10/2007, To Enschede...

I took a train to Enschede (Netherlands) from Brussels on 29th morning. The travel took 6hours till Enschede.

A Brief History On The Netherlands...
This is what my bro told about The Netherlands... It is a very well known fact that more that 70% of The Netherlands is under sea level. The Netherlands was once marshlands. Marshlands which no one had cared about. Those lands which never gave a hope for the farmers of that time. The land on which there was little scope of cultivation which could provide enough grains to feed the country for a day. The farmers of The Netherlands were hard workers.

Farmers then used wooden shoes to cultivate in their lands; since leather shoes did not have much life in water. The importance of 'Wooden Shoes' in Netherlands hence is enormous. They consider it as a symbol of their national pride. Their hard work laid the foundation to one among the three richest nations of Europe.


The Enschede centrum and township



Enschede township was very much lively that afternoon. We could see children enjoting ice skating, old men enjoying the afternoon sun sipping drinks, women with their babies in perambulators walking in the street, couples walking their way through shopping streets... It was a pleasant day in Enschede.






Activities in Enschede...

We visited a car/bike display showroom and had some snaps taken there. The Enschede centrum was lively that day.





The good part of the show was that the Enschedians have been spending some effort and money to keep their historic heritage glowing. The buildings including the Stadhuis(Town Hall) were remarkable.




The Road to Germany

The fact that Germany is just an hour distance from Enschede was a fascinating news for me. My brother was ready for a trip to Munster, the township in the border of Germany and The Netherlands. Munster, the birth place of Hitler was adorned with its vividly decorated Gothic churches that night. (I remembered the Gothic church in the game Unreal Tournament when i was framing the previous line. It was quite an experience to see a Gothic church afterall.)


The alley to the 'Hall of Peace' in Munster was a posing a scintillating view for the tourists with its street lights. We visited some churches there; attended a prayer function in one of the old chruches. It was quite huge..(sorry, i don't remember the name of the church :(...).



Time was running out for us. we had to catch the train to Enschede and didn't want to end up in streets of munster that night without even knowing the German.. We took the train back to Enschede from the Munster Westfront train station.


30/10/2007, Rotterdam...

Rotterdam cruise

We planned to visit the Rotterdam Port; the largest port in the world. The port boasts of possibilities of anchoring any ship built till now in this world. It was obvious. The travel in the cruise was simply fascinating. It was my first and it was thrilling to be on board in one of them.




The cruise took a round in the Maas river; its guide explaining the history of the port and the adjacent buildings that support the port. I was enthralled to see the sight of a huge container ship which was docked aside for loading the containers and the efficiency with which the ship was loaded by the highly automated and engineered crane service of the port.




The Erasmus bridge; the bridge named after the famous traveller Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was displaying its splendid beauty in the Rotterdam evening sky, when the cruise was nearing its end.







I had my return tickets booked from Rotterdam. T bid farewell to my bro. It was the beginning of another long journey for me. Alone.