Our Gay Couple City Weekend in Eindhoven | The Netherlands
A Gay City Trip Eindhoven or how the history of light reinvents the Modern Dutch Design Capital in the South of the Netherlands. Eindhoven, the 5th largest Dutch City in province of North Brabant is a hiddeen historic treasure sadly often underestimated, even by its citizens. But Eindhoven is the European city of light, especially during the early 20th century when Philips, the electronic giant, started to influence the light life of the world.
Exploring the city of Eindhoven with some time to walk the city also outside the center during a Gay Couple City Weekend, opened up the beauty of Industrial design and architecture. We as fans of modern design found so many, so beautiful spots to fall in love with all over the municipality, that we can only recommend to plan a trip to Eindhoven, even in January. Enjoy reading our kick-off story of our last years Dutch Gay City Tour with our perfect Gay City Trip Eindhoven.
Coffeelab | Gallery Kazerne | Strijp-S | Pastry Club | MU Artspace | Restaurant Onder de Leidingstraat | Escape Room Strijp-S
Gay Couple City Weekend Eindhoven The Netherlands © CoupleofMen.com
What to do on a Gay Couple City Weekend Eindhoven?
We like to walk the city. Starting from the center, our explorations are going beyond the main touristic and shopping routes to discover the real beauty our of a traveler’s perspective. Most of the times, even citizens don’t know anymore, how beautiful an everyday city can look like for foreigners, even for us coming from Amsterdam. Where to get the best coffee in the morning, which exhibition you have to visit or which part of the city is in our opinion the best place to be, eat and to wander around. Enjoy our tips and ideas for Eindhoven, and don’t hesitate to add more things to do in Eindhoven with a comment or a message! But now, enjoy our impressions and photos of a Gay Couple City Weekend Eindhoven!
Breakfast Tip: Coffee & Toast at COFFEELAB
Good morning in this beautiful weekend in Eindhoven starts with a good wake up coffee and a first snack. We found this amazing spot right in front of the Eindhoven Station. With really delicious coffee, tea and the so-called toast 2.0, the CoffeeLab at Stationsplein is located in the unremarkable VVV building. You really would not expect this cozy, green, and welcoming atmosphere with really tasty sandwiches and hot drinks in the middle of a station square. The girls working there were really friendly and helpful. A “lekker” start for our great day in Eindhoven.
Wandering around Eindhoven City Center
Of course, we wanted to get a first impression of the city in the center of Eindhoven. Busy shopping streets full of Design and Style shops alternate with known brands, boutiques, and small private shops. We are fans of architecture, design, and art. A tip for a mix of all of that including a shop, food, and drinks, is undoubtedly the Kazerne Eindhoven. “Come eat, drink and get inspired”, true to the motto of this joint venture, the combination of the galleries and artworks of this unique environment in an old barracks building are truly making a difference. Check it out!
Architecture Highlights of Eindhoven Center
Due to the destroying of the old part of Eindhoven during the World War II, the architecture of the city of Eindhoven is a true mixture of styles, times and views. Every corner seems to be different, every facade special but nothing seems to be a successful match, although it somehow is. Although, one specific style returns again and again, the Industrial architecture. Have a look on some of our favorites:
Walk to Industry & Design: Eindhoven STRIJP-S
We are fans of industrial Design and Architecture, so to get to the district Strijp-S North West of the city center was our next way to go. The former Philips-City (also Philips-village) of Eindhoven is a part full of still-visible history and marks the complexion of Eindhoven as the cultural inheritance to even today. Our way led us along with the typical Philips village buildings, passing the Philips Stadium, home of the world-famous PSV Eindhoven football club to the Strijp-S. How does the Strijp-S look like? Factories, industrial buildings of the 30s, 40s, and 50s and later and an urban mix of nature and manmade subculture are defining the area in West Eindhoven. Hip, modern and in industrial Design, that is how you can describe the area of Eindhoven. The history of the workers seems to be omnipresent while we wandering around this unique environment.
Iconic building EVOLUON – a gigantic flying saucer
Did you actually know, that Eindhoven has a UFO just like in Seattle? The architectural Icon Evoluon looks super impressive just like a gigantic flying saucer. Especially at night, the building, today used as a congress and meeting center, looks incredible. You should take some time to give the building a visit on your Gay Couple City Weekend Eindhoven during daytime and later again in the evening when colored light is lightening up the Eindhoven Congress Center.
Gay Couple City Weekend Eindhoven The Netherlands © CoupleofMen.com
Sweets & Pastry in an old Factory Building
Arriving in the Strijp-S after relaxed wandering around made us hungry. Time for a (sweet) snack and a small break in between at PastryClub of Eindhoven. Already the first look into this unbelievable Pastry store is stunning: steel chains, a crane, rusty old factory machines and in the middle of the hall in the basement, a bar full of chocolate and delicious snacks. Discover the whole space, upstairs, downstairs and take your time imagining how this building was used before. Tip!
The MU Artspace with Exhibition “BODY OF MATTER”
Next on our list: the MU, in January 2016 with the exhibition “Body of Matter”. The MU > is an art space in an old factory building showing art, design, pop culture and new media right in the heart of the Strijp-S. We were invited to have a look at the art pieces of the chosen artists and to find out how to interact and to discover their different features.
“.. They [the 10 artists] explore its materiality, stimulation, quantification using technology, integration with alien matter, and, finally, its obsolescence by stimulation.”
The artists of this exhibition are Maarten Vanden Eynde, Charlotte Jarvis, Floris Kaayk, Orion Maxted, Kirstin Neidlinger, Špela Petrič and Hongjie Yang including the BAD Award 2015 winners Isaac Monté, Agi Haines and Emma Dorothy Conley. Take your time to see, feel and interact with the artworks of the exhibition “Body of Matter – Body based bio art & design” until the 7th of February 2016 daily for only 3 € entrance fee.
Lunch & Dinner: “Onder de Leidingstraat” – Vegetarian & Vegan
After an intense and adventurous time here in the Strijp-S it was time for dinner and some beer! Because walking makes you hungry after all! Perfect for a hungry stomach: Avocado-Egg sandwich, a lentils-sweet potato soup and a fresh beetroot salad with goat cheese and two Ginger-beers at “Onder de Leidingstraat“. We really do like Ginger-beer. A perfect spot to feast but also to work and to recap the time in Eindhoven. For a City Weekend Eindhoven, this place is definitely worth a visit!
Escape Room Strijp-S Eindhoven
If you want to spice up your visit to the Strijp-S area in Eindhoven we found the perfect one-hour adventure for you, even after dinner. The “Escape Room Strijp-S Eindhoven“ locks you and your friends/family/dates up in a 60-minutes mind-maze room full of puzzles and secret doorways. Your number one priority… escape! There are two different escape rooms available: The Crime lab – which brings you right in the middle of a CSI operation and The Adventure Camper – which will drive you around the world in a trip packed with secret maps and different cultures.
As travel enthusiast and big fans of anything theme park related we chose to explore the Adventure Camper. Most escape rooms are build for a group between 4 and 8 people, so we needed two more players. Who would be better in winning (and looking cute doing it) than our own Mister Gay Netherlands 2015 Tom Van Den Nieuwenhuijzen and his sweet husband? After a short introduction, we got locked up in the big old school bus. The first thing to do: start the engine… and the clock started ticking. What happens in the Adventure Camper > stays in the Adventure Camper so if you want to know how to get out: check it yourself!
Two Couple of men in Eindhoven: Karl & Daan and Mister Gay Netherlands 2016 & Husband
Eindhoven – History charged Chronicles
Eindhoven as 5th biggest city of the Netherlands is a city in the Dutch province North Brabant with a total amount of inhabitants of about 223000 citizens. Back to the roots, Eindhoven became officially a city already in 1232 but stayed insignificant for a long time period. Eindhoven was established at the point of confluence of the 2 rivers Dommel and Gender. With the Industrial Revolution around 1900 started a rapid growth of the city population not least because of the well-known, gigantic technics company Philips. In this context, five municipalities of the neighborhood were incorporated to “Greater Eindhoven”, nowadays Eindhoven.
“At the beginning, I had to all by myself (…)” – Philips
Our Trip to Eindhoven
After this reaped historical background information, you can start preparing your city weekend Eindhoven. As the first city of our Netherlands tour, we arrived in Eindhoven with the train service of the Netherlands NS at Eindhoven Station. If you are planning to come to the Netherlands, check your options to fly directly to Eindhoven in the south of the Netherlands. From Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is about 1,5 hours by train to Eindhoven. You will set your first step right in the center of the city. Try to get before or after you arrived at Eindhoven the App or as we did, the small guide book of “This is Eindhoven” for a better overview on all the districts and some special offers for food, drinks and discount coupons all over the city.
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We loved our Gay City Trip to Eindhoven
Our City Weekend Eindhoven seriously exceeded all our expectations. Eindhoven has this special atmosphere you will only see on a second sight. The people we met were more than welcoming and helpful giving us tips and insides how to enjoy the city even more. Design, Architecture, Industrial environment, history charged districts and a special spirit of optimism expressing the best how we experienced our city weekend Eindhoven.
We will come back, promise! Do you wanna know and see more of us gay couple travel bloggers? Stay tuned on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook! See you around in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Europe and on one of our next gay pride trips around the world!
Karl & Daan.
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