Opa Fiets in Eindhoven

From One End to the Other

Eindhoven grew up organically in the 20^th century around Royal Philips, once a TV maker and now a health equipment company. This made it the most bikeable place Opa Fiets has visited on this trip. The bike paths are not crowded, and there is plenty of room for cars.

My first aim was to visit the Hovenring. It has become famous in the U.S. thanks to posts showing bikes magically parading around it, above the traffic. It’s just what they say, but don’t get your hopes up. It cost around $10 million to build, it’s not inherently stable, and so it became a one-off. People still use it, they take it for granted in fact, but it’s the only Hovenring you’ll ever see.

The most amazing part of the Hovenring, for me, is that while it’s less than 4 miles from the center of the city, it’s a suburban world away. You not only have to cross the Beukenlaan, a ring road defining the town center, but the A2 freeway, which acts to separate Eindhoven from its western suburbs. Wandering into Veldhoven for a power cord, a trip of just two more miles, I was a world away from the city,

That is indeed the way it is for the residents. The roads around my hotel were wide, filled with cars and trucks, almost like back home. There was even a McDonald’s a block away.

After spending a night in Eindhoven’s western suburbs, my main task the next morning was a ride across town to the Van Gogh Village in Neunan. Seen on a map, this is a journey across the city to the far eastern suburbs, where real estate agents are telling clients to bike until they qualify.

Cross the Town

The route took me past the train station and through the Silly Walks Tunnel. This is a tunnel under the tracks whose wall was once painted over to honor the Monty Python sketch. A young John Cleese welcomes you on one side, and an older one sees you to the back end.

On a Dutch bike this is something of a haul. You’re sitting upright, your weight on your backside, your hands as open as if playing a piano. The distance over which this is comfortable is not great. That’s fine because even new cities like Eindhoven are compact, turning the limitation into a benefit. Most Dutch cyclists also ride one-handed much of the time, and you’ll often see the other hand attached to a partner – mother to child, friend to friend, lover to lover.

The trip from western suburbs to eastern is just 7.5 miles. That won’t get you outside the Perimeter in Atlanta. It’s the distance from Five Points to Brookhaven on the north, Avondale on the east, the Airport on the south, and it won’t get you out of the city to the west.

In addition to passing through the Silly Walks tunnel, the road crosses the loop road on its eastern side, where it crosses the N270 highway. Here, instead of building a Hovenring, Eindhoven has put the bike path under the roadway, in tunnels lined with graffiti. It’s even celebrated as the “Step in the Arena” graffiti walls. On a bike it’s a Lord of the Rings feeling, like going from being an elf on the west side to a dwarf on the east.

Van Gogh Village

The Village is a street and a park outside Neunan. The street holds a museum dedicated to Van Gogh’s time there. The park has two statues. One of Van Gogh himself, a strong careerist in his early 30s. The other is of The Potato Eaters, an early masterwork he painted here.

The museum is just a few hundred feet from where his tiny studio was. It holds that famous painting, and interactive backgrounds where his family speaks from photographs. There’s a small loom he did studies of, a model of his workplace, and two short films explaining what his life was like and the work he was engaged in. It’s more than worth your time.

Opa Fiets had a marvelous time in Eindhoven, but a rotten time getting out. The train station was just 20 minutes from the Village, where I had a lovely lunch on a non-smoking patio alongside a woman who’d retired to Spain, visiting her sister and exchanging family gossip.

The problems began once I made it to the station. The 1:47 train back to Utrecht was cancelled, something about an electrical failure along the line. So were the 2:17 and the 2:47. A growing crowd ran between platforms, disappointed each time, and I finally went into a coffee bar, a Starbucks knock-off called Coffee Fellows. By the time we got back to Utrecht, my off-peak rail pass for the bike was nearly expired. I rode the 10 km to Maarssen.

This illustrates a growing problem for the Netherlands. Fewer riders mean smaller budgets and higher prices. This cuts into maintenance, leading to problems that can discourage the riders who remain. Some white-collar workers are going back to their cars, especially around cities like Eindhoven where there’s room.

The fietsers’ dream is threatened.