Dagje Eindhoven

Matthijs and I went to Eindhoven yesterday - simply because we could. As often happens when we head out to explore a place, we found it delightful. After all, how could it not be? We left all the stresses and responsibilities at home, had looked into the area a bit (to make sure we had a couple of ideas of what we could do), and, most importantly, opened ourselves up for whatever we might bump into.

The following are a few of the highlights of the day - shared not because they were so special, but more so in the hope that others might be able to delight further in exploring the world around them (sharing that with a curious partner helps too!)

- an 'oh' moment to begin: on the way to the train station (at 9:30 in the morning), there came rollerskating along the bikepath a man with a naked bum. I did a doubletake, asked Matthijs if he'd also noticed, wondered a bit about how that could be comfortable or even do-able, and kept walking so we wouldn't miss our train.
- De Witte Dame - We started by the ANWB and purchased their Architecture walking guide (worth picking up or borrowing from us), which I'd wanted for awhile. The only problem was that the book (and lots of signs) kept mentioning the building the Witte Dame (white lady), and as I couldn't figure out what they were talking about, it remained the mystery of the day. A quick google search reveals a website for it -  turns out it's a rather boring building that we had actually seen.
- the Van Abbemuseum,
- a concert in the Catharina church (Boccherini). I found the first half wonderful, but the second half (more soloists) rather dull, although Matthijs assures me it was quite good. The stained-glass windows in the church had me (much to my delight) searching for all the biblical references in them.
- dinner at a Spanish restaurant. The food was very good, but better still was having time to talk to each other outside of the rush of the every day. Having already spent 8 hours continuously together, we'd managed by then to have brought up most of the more mundane and pressing things we'd been thinking about lately, which meant that we were both ready to spend time talking about big ideas and our hopes for the next while.

Add to that some walking, lots of buildings to look at, good food, and good conversation - and it was a recipe for a great mini-vacation without the hassle of packing :)