Europe 2023, August 26

Got to have a late start by usual standards, leaving after 8am to get across to parkrun for the standard European 9am start. Lucky I had checked the facebook page the night before and saw they had a change of venue due to another event in the park at the usual location.

Instead of a minor adjustment they had confined the course to a really small 1.2 kilometre loop done four and a bit times. I ran around the whole lake during my warmup and they easily could have done a single 2.5 kilometre out and back instead, while still avoiding the inaccessible area.

Anyway, I started off slow as the parkrun began due to fatigue from holiday walking and settled into third place. I wasn't making much ground on the first two for the first lap and didn't think I'd catch them. I gradually got a bit quicker and overtook them on the second and third laps to win by about 15 seconds.

Afterwards I jogged back to the hotel through the university and had breakfast, my legs were feeling quite sore from the faster running. I wasn't in a big hurry as the Philips museum didn't open until 11am, and got there soon after it opened.

This was more of a proper museum than some of the previous ones, with a proper audio guide and lots of other text descriptions to read on the wall. The first half was all about the early days of their company and their light bulb production. Later on it got a bit more into some of their other research and development, but not as much detail.

The secondary focus was probably their radios and some health equipment, while televisions didn't get much attention. On the upper floor there was a gallery of many of the old products they have created, and a section of old advertising material. The final room was some future technology interactive thing that claimed I was 1.87 metres tall.

Afterwards there was an extra section for their sports involvement, in particular with the PSV football team, but it wasn't as good as I would have expected. Overall a good museum for a couple of hours to look through everything. I found a couple of magnets in the gift shop on the way out, although unfortunately none of them included the city name.

I had a break for lunch then decided I would try one more museum that got a good rating, the DAF museum. It was a little bit further from the city centre, but still within walking distance.

This museum was dedicated to all the vehicles the DAF company has produced. It looked small from the entrance but was actually quite a large warehouse with a few levels, although it was a bit of a maze to see everything. It seems DAF have built a bit of everything, from cars to trucks to emergency vehicles to garbage trucks to small tanks.

One section had a lot of on-loan cars that weren't even DAF related which was a bit strange, like BMW and Mercedes. They also had some racing cars like an old Williams Renault and some other rally and lower class formula divisions. Overall a decent museum but a little expensive and not as good as Philips.

I was a bit tired so decided to finish for the day and head back to the hotel, picking up an Eindhoven magnet on the way. I had originally planned to go to the PSV soccer match in the late afternoon also, but as they were still involved in additional matches during the week for Champions League qualifying it had been postposed.

In addition to all of the the unadvertised facilities the hotel website also claimed they had a 24 hour business centre with printing. When I asked at the reception they seemed very confused by the question, all they could suggest was to email them a document and they'd print it.

I checked the status of my Emirates flights home and found a front row premium economy had opened up for the 2pm-9pm from London to Dubai. Since I wouldn't be trying to sleep I thought the extra legroom was worth a risk versus the downside of the toilet traffic, bright lights, and crying babies. I might keep checking and see if the front row window seat becomes clickable later, for now I could only get the aisle set.

Eindhoven

• 7 out of 10

Good

• Lots of bicycle and walking lanes
• Safe and walkable city

Bad

• Credit card avoidance
• Hotel not meeting specifications
• No trams
• PSV museum not available without tour
• PSV soccer match was postponed

Missed Out

• Berenkuil street art
• PSV stadium tour and museum
• Strijp-S neighbourhood
• Van Abbe museum

The Hague

• 5 out of 10

Good

• Compact city with good tram network
• Limited activities

Bad

• Museum locations a bit too spread out

Missed Out

• Kunstmuseum
• Louwman museum