De 4 Daagse

Yesterday marked the beginning of the De 4 Daagse event in Nijmegen.  People come from all over the world to walk between 30 - 50k per day for four consecutive days through the streets of Nijmegen and the neighboring towns. Over the past week, we've watched tents, stages, starting lines, grand stand, pedestrian bridges, carnival rides, and temporary buildings being constructed all over the town.  We are not talking one or two structures. Giant structures all over town!   Bill and I agreed that the preparation and thought put into this event puts the Philly Welcome America celebration to shame. Trash cans are set up throughout the town, water fountains, extra bike racks, port o potties are all throughout the streets.  Giant, concert sized stages with lights and speakers are in the parks and city center.  It truly is one big festival throughout the entire town!  Over 1 million people are expected to be in the city over the course of this week.  Hotels are sold out for miles around!  http://www.4daagse.nl/en/

The walk starts officially on Tuesday and goes through Friday.  Packet pick up began yesterday though so the celebration kicked off then.  We decided to go out in the town today and, boy, were we impressed with what we saw.   Yes, there were beer tents set up all over but it was a family friendly atmosphere.  Everyone was cordial, civil, kind, and polite!  We opted to explore the city centre and the waterfront today.  We went to St. Stevenskerk (the beautiful giant church) and climbed the stairs up to the top tower!  What a view!  Between that hike and the castle stairs yesterday, we are getting in good shape for the Eiffel Tower and Disney next week!  Kayla counted - 210 stairs to the top today. The kids found an awesome African drum circle taking place and got to bang out some rhythms and boogie on down.  There was free admission to the De Stratemakerstoren Museum today so we explored that.   It was a 16th century defense tower that was buried amidst a factory that was there for quite some time.  When the factory was demolished, the walls of the tower still remained and became this museum full of rich Nijmegen history.   http://www.stratemakerstoren.nl/english_1766_1.html

Tomorrow, during the day, the kids and I will go explore the events taking place at some of our local parks and I'm sure we'll go out as a family in the town again in the evening after Bill gets home from work.  As I sit here this evening typing, I can hear a concert going on off in the distance.  This is an experience of a lifetime an I am so glad that our family gets to make these memories together.

Climbing the stairs of the Sint Stevenskerk Church Tower 

 

The view of the town centre from atop the church

 

Our little expats - Kayla is carrying the official 4 Day flag and Roman has the flag of the Netherlands in his hands