Nijmegen; Saturday, 30 April, 2016

As it was an early flight I’d stayed overnight in an airport hotel and only had to get up 2 hours before the flight was due to leave. Consequently, I had a much less painless journey through the airport arriving at the gate at 6:40.

If my journey through the airport had been painless, the same couldn’t be said of the staff as an IT glitch meant there were no working computers at the gate, and they had to resort to hand writing everyone sequence numbers and surnames down to then cross check off against a print out before dispatching the plane. Despite this, and it being a full flight, we were only about 20 minutes late pushing back and with a quick taxi round the airport were airborne shortly afterwards

A very quick flight later and for some reason landing on the runway closest to the airport and not the one closer to Dover than Amsterdam meant that we were at the gate almost on time, and then it was the usual long walk through the massive D terminal at Schiphol and back to luggage reclaim.

Through the airport relatively quick and down onto the station platform with enough time to make the 11:00 train onto Nijmegen (so only 80 minutes after landing).

I’d forgotten that Dutch InterCity trains differ from their counterparts in the UK and Germany in not being that fast, and it took the full 90 minutes of the schedule for the train to pootle the 80 or Kilometres from Amsterdam to Nijmegen, including a five-minute stop and reverse in Arnhem. Thankfully, the hotel was just outside the station so I was able to check-in and be up in my room before the train had turned round and headed back towards Amsterdam again.

After unpacking I headed out into town, wandering down to the centre and on to the Waal riverside before climbing up into the Valkhofpark, located where the former city fortress used to be. Occupying the high ground in the city (and if you know the Netherlands the concept of high ground is a rarity), it offers good views over the city and the river valley. A couple of the towers and part of the wall remains, but the main remnant of the old fortress is the Sint-Nicolaaskapel which I had a look around.

From the park I wandered back through town to the Grote Markt and after looking round that stopped in one of the many cafes on its sides to have a very late lunch.

Lunch finished I headed back down to the river for desert. The Pancake Boat runs regular 75-minute sightseeing tours along the Waal, but to be honest there is very little to see – either floodplain, industrial areas or docks – so instead of a running commentary or sightseeing the boat offers an unlimited pancake buffet with vast numbers of pancakes being cooked fresh by the on-board chefs to be supplemented by a range of sweet and savoury fillings from the buffet table.

I don’t remember much of the tour, other than feeling very full at the end as I gently waddled off of the boat and headed back towards the hotel.

Having filled up with a late lunch and more pancakes than I’m willing to admit to, and with the sun setting, I took that as a hint to head back to the hotel and attempt to digest my dinner and catch up on my missed sleep by having an early night.