Richting: Breda ( Direction: Breda)

My summer vacation is about to finish. The Netherlands' weather is now lowering down to its normal range. The magical sunny days is almost over and now welcome to the rainy and wet side of the flatlands.

Not to lose any single free time, I went to Breda, a small city in the province of North Brabant. The city of Breda is in the west part located between the Dutch Randstad conurbation formed by the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht and the Belgian triangle formed by the cities of Antwerp, Gent and Brussels.
I always hear or read the word "richting Breda" in the train stations . This means "going or directing destination" to Breda. I always stepped out in Delft and left the train richting Breda. Then, I decided to make an endpoint to the city. To make the adventure complete, a filipina friend Lyn came along with me to visit the city.
"It takes two to tango," as they say. We were brave as knights though the rain keep pouring. Our umbrellas helped us and thanks that there was no wind velocity to keep them standstill.

We first had walked in the leafy woods of Valkensberg park. It has large pond and monumental trees, come rain or shine, we still pause for picture on the edge of the pond under the forest park. Tree lined avenues and street. Grass verges and public gardens. Spacious parks, little windmills and water canals. All these are present always in a Dutched city and Breda is not an exemption of these Dutch wonders. More of Breda.

Hands in our umbrellas, we can still managed to make a graceful walk going to the castle. Ooops...the thought of queens and princesses played in my mind again...I'm not sure with Lyn. ( I have to ask her :-)).
Fotos from Virtualtourist.com.
Foto from virtual tourist.com. This is the front view of tha castle inside.


The castle is closed for the public, still gotcha! We had shots at the gate. Had a ten meters thick wall built in 1510 for the protection of the castle area, this gate became the entrance of the castle and became one of the earliest home of the Orange Royal family.

At the gate of the castle. I'm pasting our pics together :-).

Currently house by the royal military academy and only arranged tour can be made inside by the city tourism office (vvvbreda).

The Grote Kerk (Big Church) or Our Lady’s Church in Breda is one of the oldest stone buildings in the city. We went inside, actually just right of the entrance door. We don't like to pay, so we managed to take shot just right where our camera lens can afford to. The church with its tower - an example of the Brabant gothic style - is a landmark for the inhabitants and for anybody visiting the city.

The tower of the Grote Kerk. I'm pasting again our picture together :-)

In any season, people throng into the streets and into the café terraces. We can hear the murmur of voices everywhere. The city centre hums like a hive. And as we wandered about the grey cobbled squares, number of shops aligning enough to cause neck pains or stiff as you keep your head up looking to the old city towers. We went on shopping crawl around the center and simply overwhelmed by impressions and depressions of some expensive-Eurologic stuff. Ummh...not practical...we mused :-)

Tagged as women...of course we simply went to corners where to spoil our interest and faves. From scents to fashion accesories, of clothings and bags, of tiny detailed things to nonsense stuff and to "food for thoughts" and stomach delights.

Trivia: We spent almost an hour in just one small dames kleding winkel (ladies dress shop). We bought something nice to wear. :-) and... we ended to buy the same :-) heheheh! Fun huh! And we thought of wearing it at the same time :-) Just wait and see!

We really had a leg exercise by walking the whole centrum. What we did most of the time is marching forward...sidewards and even backwards again. Few steps at a time then rest. Kkkrriiing! Few rings of our mobile fones and our Knights of shining armor reminding us that they are home :-) It was time to get back home. But...ooops...we need to remind them too that we will arrive home late. It was 7:46pm we left Breda by taking an intercity train. Kinda late huh...'çoz we spent time to find our way to station. We got lost :-) Just few hundred steps afar I think. We looked at our map like lost tourists in the midst of traffic lights. We enjoyed it. We had almost 45 minutes rest sitting in the train while blessed with a nice weather in the early evening.

Our view from the train going home.

What a day enough to have a good night rest :-)