Coming Home to Breukelen

September 10th, 2010

September 10th Friday – Cool and Rainy – 15 degrees Celsius

It’s another rainy day in the Netherlands. I recently asked a woman in a shop, who was complaining about the rain, if this was typical weather or something out of the ordinary. She shrugged and said that rain and overcast cloudy skies was typical Dutch weather. Oh well…. I wondered if it ever got warm enough for all the boats to be used or were they around for atmosphere and wishful hopes.  Last year, when we visited Amsterdam we had several rainy days in July.


We awoke early and left the Crown Plaza Hotel in Maastricht by 9:15 AM. Jeff got the car out of the parking garage and we had coffee at a local shop. We easily found the A2 highway and drove north. It was only a two hour drive to Utrecht. If the weather had been nicer we might have had a leisurely breakfast in Maastricht or stopped off in Utrecht to see the sights in the early afternoon.

It was a gentle rain, “misting” as they called it in Scotland, but persistent enough to interfere with taking photographs. The A2 is one of the Netherlands major north-south highways which ends in Amsterdam. It passes several good-sized cities and towns, but most of the views are of farms and industrial parks.

We had made a reservation at the Van der Valk Hotel in Breukelen because all the hotels in Utrecht were booked solid three days ago for the entire weekend. Something exciting must be going on in Utrecht this weekend, but we don’t know what!!

Breukelen is about 8 kilometers north of Utrecht just off the A2. It is the town where the early Dutch settlers in the New World got the name for their new city in 1646: Brooklyn. In a strange way, it could be considered a “home coming” for Jeff to get back to his roots since he was born in Brooklyn, NY. I read an Internet article that Breukelen celebrated the anniversary of their Brooklyn connection last year in 2009.


Jeff had read in Trip Advisor that the hotel was right off the A2 and had the distinction of Chinese architecture. As we were driving north we hoped that we would be able to find it easily. Then we spotted it! Yes, it’s a large building painted red with a yellowish tile roof with sweeping curves and looks like something from the Forbidden City in Beijing China and a big neon sign “Hotel Breukelen”.

It was impossible to miss!! It even had the small Chinese Imperial figures on the lower corners of the roof. If it’s not raining tomorrow, I will take pictures of it. It was a laugh! The building is a real surprise on the Dutch highway in the middle of green farms dotted with white sheep and brown cows, where the exit sign reads: “Breukelen”. We were very disappointed that the Chinese theme was not continued inside the hotel. There is nothing Chinese in the lobby, or restaurants, or the rooms. We were hoping for a Chinese menu in the restaurant, at least…… Hmmm, I wonder if there is a suggestion box somewhere.


In the afternoon we drove through Breukelen and it’s nothing like its namesake in New York. We took a driving circuit recommended by the Michelin Guide which went through some very beautiful areas north of Utrecht. If the weather had been better, we would have stopped in one or more of the lovely villages and took pictures. There were many large beautiful houses along the shores of the lakes. It looked like a boater’s paradise with many sail and power boats.


Afterwards we drove into Utrecht. There was a lot of traffic and congestion on the A2 southbound. I guess rainy Fridays exist everywhere. Utrecht looked like a typical Netherlands city with industrial areas on the outer perimeter. Then modern residential areas around the “ring roads” and finally an old historic “Centrum” in the middle or heart of the city. The other drivers are polite and drive relatively slowly so driving on the narrow older streets isn’t too hard.

It’s the bicycles and motor-scooters that make driving in any Netherland city a challenge. They simply seem to have the right of way and do not stop at traffic intersections! Pedestrians do have the right of way and when they step off the curb, drivers have to stop their cars. This combined with driving in an unfamiliar place makes driving a bit of a challenge.


We returned to the Van der Valk Hotel in the early evening to blog and rest. This hotel is part of a chain and I wondered if the other hotels look like this one or if they have different building themes. The owner of the chain must have a Walt Disney imagination or a weird sense of humor.


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