There is a very nice water park in Eindhoven Nationaal Zwemcentrum de Tongelreep, that the kids wanted to go ever since we started to research about Eindhoven. We finally decided to go yesterday and even though we just got bikes, we are waiting till Saturday market to get Sylvia’s seat, so we decided to take the bus.
Eindhoven public transportation is limited to buses, but it is an extensive network, that covers the city and outlaying areas well and the buses run on time and often. We live about 3/4 of a mile from the train station, which is also the hub for all the bus routes. It is a busy place with buses coming and going all the times. (I forgot to take a picture so I borrowed one from OV magazine)
Even though our schedule said the bus leaves from platform A, we were able to see on the digital displays that it was actually on Platform E. That is probably why nobody was waiting at the actual platforms, rather everybody was in the larger waiting area at the front, and only went to the platform after the bus # appeared at the digital display. There are digital displays on every station with up to date information on bus arrivals, as well as on the buses with upcoming stations and estimated arrival times, and connecting busses, which makes navigation pretty easy.
As we got on, Timmy and Sylvia started to have a lot of questions “How does the driver know where to take us?”, “Are all the people here going to the water park?” , “Why is the bus stopping every couple of minutes?” and “Why are different people getting on and others off?”. And I realized they have no frame of reference for how public transportation works. They are used to getting into a car and driving from point A to point B directly, and the idea of looking up lines and possibly switching buses, dealing with schedules is completely foreign to them. Phillip has some experience from our previous trips to Europe, but the little ones do not. When I was their age, taking trams, buses and subway everywhere was just part of an everyday life. I miss that living in US, even though South Bend Mishawaka metro area is comparable to Eindhoven, the bus network certainly is not:-) I can’t wait to take the kids to Prague where we’ll take trams and buses and subway.
One thing I am still confused about here is the fare. The website is only in Dutch and even with Google Translate, I am not very clear on it. But it seems the bus drivers aren’t either. Almost everyone here has a chip card that they slide on top of a machine when they get on and again when getting off and it charges them automatically. You can also pay cash to the driver though. On our way there, the driver charged us two full price tickets for me and Phillip and nothing for Timmy and Sylvia, total of 7.40 Euro. On our way back, I got a special ticket for one adult and two children for 6 Euro and one more for a child for 1 Euro, for a total of 7. When I went to the main store at the station and asked, I was told the kids are 1 Euro for every trip and my ticket depends on where I am going. So I am still not much smarter. We plan to bike to most places anyway, but is was a fun experience! I only took two pictures on our way home, Sylvia and I still with wet hair, but here it is:-)
family M adventures 