Franconian Beer Message Board
Noord-Holland Nieuws |
| Posted by Nick B. on 2013-11-23 04:00:46 |
| Leiden even has its own multi-page entry in our old Amsterdam travel book, in the section "outside of Amsterdam"! Looks like an interesting enough town, worth visiting someday. To live in whilst working near the Bijlmeer arena, however...nee. So, we're back from 5 days/nights spent in lovely, quiet, well-to-do Naarden. Naarden's single specialist bier-café, Demmers, is great, and the Vesting, the fortress old town, quite picturesque. It and its twin city Bussum are in desperate need of a brewpub though, one specialising in low-gravity, well-hopped ale, along with the usual Beneluxian-style ales. One day was well spent in Utrecht, a cracking uni city. Also in desperate need of such a brewpub, but there are a few splendid bier cafés. We ate better than expected at the dive-y seeming Belgie. Train travel seemed rather more expensive than in the VGN area, with two returns (Naarden-Bussum - Utrecht) and two day tickets for two bikes totalling over 30 €. The drive there (non-native speakers should practice "thither" in place of "there") and back was uneventful, though of course quicker on the Sunday (almost no lorry traffic in Germany) than on Friday, 6-1/2 hours....including more stops than would be if I were driving alone. Das Navi routed us along the A3 the whole way there but along the A45 down to Würzburg on the way back to avoid Frankfurter traffic. The bits of motorway I drove in the NL were nicer than most of the Autobahn stretches, FWIW. Quite an enjoyable trip, lots of good --though not cheap-- eating. I even broke down and had a couple of tostis with ham. Mrs will be flying back and forth on Wed & Thu for a workshop-something, FWIW. |
| Followups: |
 Noord-Holland Nieuws by TreinJan on 2013-11-23 06:59:52 |
| Noord-Holland Nieuws by Nick B. on 2013-11-23 09:06:01 |
| Noord-Holland Nieuws by TreinJan on 2013-11-23 11:01:52 |
| Noord-Holland Nieuws by Nick B. on 2013-11-24 03:55:40 |