Nijmegen

Nijmegen has been in my mind ever since I was 16 and wanted to walk the famous four days march here (vierdaagse). I was too young then and weren’t allowed to join. Well, now I am here, although not walking that far (it finished just a few days ago).

We are staying at the Scandic Sanadome, a spa hotel. So first we had to soak, trying out the different hot pools, saunas and what not.
All fresh and reinvigorated, we headed downtown and ended up sitting on the terrace of the beautiful old Waagh-house. Like in many Dutch merchant cities, a centrally located house housed the official scale, which was used to control the quantities when selling and buying goods. We never weighed our nice Kasteel, it seemed to be just the right quantity.

After some strolling around, we found the microbrewery Stadsbrouwerij Hemel and their lush courtyard. Here you can have your own little tasting, trying their six different brews. You would be surprised to hear that we had one of these tastings. Or maybe not ☺

Nijmegen is by the river De Waal, which is powerful and fast-flowing here. We strolled down to the riverbank and ended up having dinner here. The food was very unspectacular, but we did enjoy the views, with one barge after another passing by.

In the end, we opted to head back to the city centre for a last drink at the Café in de blauwe hand. This is a charming little place around the corner from de Waagh, made even more charming by the cute border collie that sat next to us, not to mention the Saison Regal and Rochefort 8.