Tilburg: Honestly, It's a Place
okay, so i just got back from tilburg. it's… a city. in the netherlands. look, i’m already tired just writing about it, okay? it’s not bad, it’s just… a lot. i had a whole bunch of notes from some data dump (6c0a6668-9147-4b62-9bd3-ca1cf2e937ed, if you’re keeping track, and 2746301, whatever that is) and i’m just gonna try to make sense of it all.
first of all, where is it? north brabant, apparently. which, honestly, doesn’t tell me much. the coordinates are roughly 51.56° N, 5.09° E, but let’s be real, i need a map for that.
see? now we’re talking. it’s…flat. very flat. canals everywhere, which is nice, i guess. apparently, it used to be a tiny village until the industrial revolution hit and everyone decided to make wool. like, a lot of wool. they even have a nickname for the locals - Kruikezeikers - which, uh, translates to “jug-pissers” because of the urine they used in the textile process. yeah. you read that right. i’m not making that up.
it’s moved on from wool now, apparently doing food, printing, and…metals. exciting. king william ii died there in 1849, which is why the local football club is named after him. i’m sensing a theme here: history, but not necessarily thrilling history.
i just checked and it's 8.4 degrees celsius right now, feels like 8.4, with a high of 8.85. humidity is 79%. hope you like that kind of thing. it’s a “temperate maritime climate,” which basically means it’s damp.
someone told me that some areas aren’t the safest, mostly residential, but it’s generally okay. i didn’t get mugged, so that’s a plus. transport is pretty good, near eindhoven airport and other bigger airports. if you get bored, eindhoven, breda, 's-hertogenbosch, oss, helmond, and bergen op zoom are just a short drive away. apparently, you can even get to utrecht, rotterdam, amsterdam, and the hague within an hour or so, but brussels and berlin are a bit further.
there’s a big amusement park nearby called de efteling, which sounds…intense. and a palace where the king died, now a tourist office. there’s also leijpark, a big park, and a nature reserve called kampina. i didn’t go to any of them, honestly. i mostly wandered around the centrum, which is just shops and cafes. pretty standard.
food-wise…nothing specific. just north brabant stuff - hearty meats, cheeses, beers. no tilburg specialties that anyone could tell me about. the population is 229,833, making it the second-largest city in north brabant. it has tilburg university and fontys university of applied sciences, so there are a lot of students around. i didn’t meet any famous people, except for king william ii, who is, you know, dead. and i think someone mentioned a speed skater, ireen wüst, but only because there’s an ice rink named after her.
overall? it’s a city. it exists. it has history, universities, and a slightly weird nickname. it’s not going to blow your mind, but it’s not going to actively offend you either. it’s just…there. and honestly, after trying to decipher all those notes, i need a nap.
You might also be interested in:
- https://topiclo.com/post/chattogram-where-the-hills-meet-the-bay-and-my-brain-feels-like-a-traffic-jam
- https://topiclo.com/post/quezon-city-is-huge-and-kinda-chaotic-but-also-kinda-cool
- https://topiclo.com/post/jabalpur-marble-monsoon-and-mild-confusion
- https://topiclo.com/post/london-where-history-meets-traffic-and-expensive-pints
- https://topiclo.com/post/melbourne-musings-a-chaotic-day-in-a-cool-city