Post Ai1BKQPcYjo2IfeFTk by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
(DIR) More posts by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKBCf6dWl88TBhI by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:13:16Z
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My partner and I recently travelled to four different places in the Netherlands over 8 days, by train. Here's the 🧵.We had to take a taxi to/from Stockport station because our local train service wasn't running (a story for another thread), but otherwise we used trains/buses/bikes/walking to get around. No planes or cars.We saw lots of interesting things, climbed a hill, ate food food and generally had a lot of fun.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKCq31gcuCZu9j6 by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:21:02Z
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We arrived in London at 8.30 in the morning, having set off at 6am and really needed a coffee at that point (fortunately there's a good place next to the British library on Euston rd).We found that train stations in the Netherlands are really easy to navigate & well laid out. We had some tight connections at times, but these turned out not to be a problem.The final photo here shows Rotterdam station with our Eurostar train on the right. The small grey rectangles in the roof are solar panels.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKEeQHsW3p6Ttsu by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:23:37Z
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The interrail app is really good and makes travel easy. You don't need internet access to look up trains or to add them to the pass, but you do need internet access to activate a ticket (this makes sense but was annoying on a few occasions).Seat reservations aren't normally required in the Netherlands, which makes travel really flexible with an interrail pass. Even for some of the longer journeys, we didn't need to decide when we were travelling until late in the day.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKFcgfoioq0g1om by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:30:52Z
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We weren't in Utrecht for long, but it was a lovely city. Very pretty and very walkable. I also ate (veggie) bitterballen and hagelswag. We also hired bikes and rode out into the countryside.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKHRltNB8UjaL56 by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:37:40Z
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Next up, Maastricht. This was quite a surprising city, more generally European than traditionally Dutch. It also had hills and caves and a bookshop in an old church.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKKSEi6Khp2pFiq by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:41:59Z
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Also, the caves, that were created by excavating limestone, are now being used to grow mushrooms and chicory (although mostly they're a tourist attraction).
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKNNjpHW8txkCcy by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T13:53:33Z
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Apeldoorn is a modern town and very different again, but ideally situated for the Paleis Het Loo and the National park de Hoge Veluwe, with the Kröller-Müller museum. All of which were well worth visiting.The Nationale Park De Hoge Veluwe was a 20 min bus ride and once we were there we could use free, white bikes to get around. It is a really big park, so the bikes were ideal. Although, they had traditional pedal brakes that took a bit of getting used to.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKQPcYjo2IfeFTk by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T14:02:14Z
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Finally, Delft. This was a really picturesque town, as you might expect. The canals had nesting coots and great crested grebes. There were storks flying overhead and like every place we visited there were plenty of swifts too.It might just be because we visited on a weekend, but the problems with mopeds seemed more apparent here and there were an annoying number of cars/vans moving around the old streets too.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKSZyVDHD1MVXtY by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T14:08:17Z
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Overall, the trains are fast and convenient. The seats are comfortable with lots of leg space. The trains aren't always clean, but I always found them much better than UK trains. They're often busy too, but we always found a seat, and even the busiest services were much better than the UK.Even small towns have good train stations, with ample cycle parking. Using the cycle parking at stations requires an OV Chipkaart, but you can pick one up at the station, or just use the parking outside.
(DIR) Post #Ai1BKUjyT0SnixCYl6 by linuxlucy@mastodon.org.uk
2024-05-18T14:09:33Z
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Annoyingly, we were unable to hire the ubiquitous and cheap OV fiets as we didn't have personal OV Chipkaarts (you can only get anonymous ones at the station). I don't know if it's possible for non-Dutch residents to get these, but they require a week to arrive anyway, so not an option for us. Generally, bike hire was easy to find but quite expensive and the bikes weren't amazing (fairly standard for bike hire though). Some more research ahead of time might have given us more options.