czwartek, 13 października 2011

Following Mariken

Finally the sun came out! Beautiful, bright and shinning. Finally it's time for a walk around the oldest city in the Netherland.

Since it's autumn, my favorite season, I couldn't refuse myself a little walk through the lovely parks in the center of Nijmegen. The city has quite a lot of green areas, but this time I decided to focus on two of them: the Kronenburgerpark  with a little pond and a tower and the Valkhofpark with panoramic view at the river side and some ruins of Barbarossa. The first one I already knew, from my previous visits. Valkhof was my main goal today. It's build in a place where there used to be a castle. Instead of the castle I found there a different amusing construction: a big wooden... rabbit. None of my friends could really explain me the reason of the gigant animal, so I just assume, that the Dutch people envied Troy the wooden horse. 


You would rather expect a windmill, but no. To cheer you, below the hill from where the rabbit looks proudly at the river, there's another gem. One of the symbols of Holland (no, not the coffieshop). Velorama, museum of the bicycles! A small building has three floors with very steep, winding stairs and it's full of all the kinds of bicycles. Starting with a wooden construction designed by Leonardo da Vinci, through the famous weird vehicles with a huge front wheel, a small collection of royal family's bikes, ending with more modern versions of this very popular conveyance. I couldn't refuse myself this pleasure. After all, being in Holland and not to see the museum of bicycles is like to be in Belgium and not to eat the chocolate. However I had a feeling like I was the only tourist there that day. I was wondering around without any rush and there was not a single person there except me. Excluding the bored museum director, who was just smoking cigarettes and playing Windows solitaire. 

The four-hour citywalk I ended in one of many terraces in the heart of the city. I was relaxing with a cup of tea and enjoying the warmth of the autumn sunbeams, watching old buildings that survived after the bombing of Nijmegen during II World War. I didn't even miss Krakow anymore. From now on, this is gonna be my "Krakow".

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