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Gesloten
June 5th, 2006
When you're working, there's nothing better than a public holiday.
When you're travelling, there's nothing worse.
Today was a public holiday in the Netherlands and it made my day a
frustrating one. This is because I kept seeing the word Gesloten
everywhere - and that means Closed.
Now you might have already gathered that, when I travel, I try to jam as
much as I can into every day. So, as I didn't have to leave Rotterdam
until early afternoon, I decided that I would visit Kinderdijk in the
morning.
If you're a windmill enthusiast, Kinderdijk is Mecca. If you just
associate windmills with the Dutch landscape, you've probably seen
photographs from Kinderdijk without knowing where in the Netherlands those
photos were taken.
But to get to Kinderdijk, I had to race against time. I checked out of my
hotel room early, left my bags in the hotel's cloak room, and hurried to
Rotterdam Centraal station where I needed to do two things: see if my
phone (which I lost on a tram yesterday) had turned up in lost property;
and get my Eurail pass validated.
The second part was easy but I was told that the main office for
Rotterdam's metro was Gesloten until noon.
I boarded a train for Rotterdam's Lombardijen station (which, by the way,
went past De Kuip) because a bus to Kinderdijk stops near Rotterdam
Lombardijen.
Yesterday, when I enquired about exactly where I would find the
Kinderdijk-bound bus, the lady at Rotterdam Centraal's information desk
told me that I should ask at Lombardijen.
When I disembarked at Lombardijen, the station was nearly empty. I found
the ticket and information office but today it's Gesloten.
I walked out of one of the station's exits and saw what looked like a bus
stop. But there were no signs or timetables there. Indeed, it looked like
a bus hadn't stopped there since van Gogh decided that he really only
needed one ear.
A lady on a balcony on a nearby apartment block saw me wandering around
like a lost sheep and tried to help. I don't know what she yelled out to
me but it was probably something like, "buses don't stop there you stupid
Aussie". She then pointed me in the direction of the nearby main road.
I saw nothing at the main road so I decided to walk along it for a while
and, after a few minutes, I found a bus stop. I would have reached it more
quickly if I'd left the train station from its rear entrance, not the more
obvious one. But how could I have known?
The route information at this bus stop did not include the bus I needed.
There were two nice old ladies there so I produced some of my best Dutch
to ask for help. "Excuseer mij, waar is de bus naar Kinderdijk?"
The two ladies then talked to each other in a rather animated way. In
fact, they were so excited that I thought I must have accidentally said
that I had presents for all their grandchildren.
But soon one of them answered. I have only learnt a bit of Dutch so I
didn't understand what she said. Nevertheless, she pointed to a bus stop
that was further down the road and on the other side. I said "dank u wel"
and walked to it.
I was finally in the right place, but joy turned to frustration again when
I read the timetable information and discovered that there was only one
bus to Kinderdijk every hour - and I'd missed one by eight minutes. I
would have caught it if the office at Rotterdam Lombardijen wasn't
Gesloten.
Given the likelihood that there was also only one bus per hour going the
other, I conceded that Kinderdijk simply wasn't going to happen. It's a
long way from Rotterdam to Ulm (where I'm staying tonight) and I couldn't
risk missing the first train that I needed (from Rotterdam to Utrecht).
I returned to Rotterdam's city centre and briefly stopped in an internet
café where I learned that some of the Netherlands' players were upset
about Australia's physical approach to yesterday's friendly. Admittedly
the foul that got Luke Wilkshire sent off was a bad one but I didn't see
anything else that was worthy of complaint.
I then walked to the main office of Rotterdam's metro to report my lost
phone. Remember, an employee of the same organisation (at Rotterdam
Centraal) had told me that this office would open at noon. But when I
found the office, a sign told me that it was Gesloten all day.
If I hadn't come all this way for football, I would have written this
morning off as a complete disaster. Fortunately sightseeing isn't my main
purpose. It's just filling gaps.
It was time to leave Rotterdam. I really liked it - despite some of the
problems I've had.
To reach Ulm, I had to connect four trains: Rotterdam to Utrecht; Utrecht
to Frankfurt Airport; Frankfurt Airport to Mannheim; and Mannheim to Ulm.
The whole journey took six and a half hours.
The trains were quite full and nearly all of the seats were reserved. I
spent most of the journey sitting in those areas between carriages and
that's not too uncomfortable.
I had company for the long stretch from Utrecht to Frankfurt. Some other
Australian football fans - also without reserved seats - were on their way
to Stuttgart. They will also go to Ulm but not until Wednesday, the day
Australia plays Liechtenstein.
After an exhausting day, the last thing I needed was to have trouble
finding my hotel in Ulm but it's near the main train station and I found
it easily.
I hope I have some sightseeing success tomorrow.
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