Riel & Goirle (Netherlands): 10 Days

~ youkyong

May 2025

Occasionally, we go to a place that we didn’t know existed. On this occasion, we were doing a home exchange with Dutch friends who had told us they lived in a small rural village. Google Maps showed us this house when we put in the address, and we trusted Google to know more than we since we knew nothing about Riel or the house.

We were quite surprised to find this house instead when we arrived following Google directions. Is this the right place? We found the keys where our friends hid them.

Riel, population 2,560, didn’t feel like a rural village. We soon found out it was more like a very comfortable suburb of Tilburg, a much bigger city of 220,000 people.

Riel is the yellow area
You can actually reach the Belgian border by following this trail next to the house – a 6 to 7km walk
The only farming we noticed was the hops grown for making beer
Kostelijk Eten & Drinken in Goirle

In fact, there was a local brewery that was attached to a monastery & our first meal in town had to include the beer from there. For that, we had to go to the next town, Goirle, since Riel didn’t have any full service restaurant.

There was a grocery market, a cafe, and a take out place in Riel. I was happy to find an Action store, though, which is a discount store much like the Japanese chain Daiso. I was to spend hours in that store one day hunting treasures. You never know what you will find in any town anywhere!

So how was the beer? Pretty good, Pat said.
They made a great burger – I kept stealing the fries from Pat’s plate because it was so good
De Eetkamer

Goirle – I still don’t know how to pronounce that name – is a real town of 23,900 people. They have churches, real shopping streets, and a small mall. Of course there were numerous restaurants, too.

De Eetkamer was recommended by our hosts’ son-in- law, and it was excellent overall.

We sat outside on a pleasant evening.

In my city slicker mind, “rural” signifies farming and isolation. In a compact, well-to-do country like the Netherlands, it may just mean more breathing room and space & the farmers are never too far from the urban centers. I could see why people like our friends would have chosen to live in a place like Riel. I could even picture myself living in a place like this where life would be slower and people are more physically active without sacrificing too much of modern niceties.

We happily parked ourselves in Riel for 10 days and visited surrounding areas without too much stress. We ate out for lunch while we were out and about but made dinner at home most nights. We were able to have nice lunches for 10 to 20 euros per head. The groceries were often cheaper and better quality – fresher, tastier – than in the U.S. Our village living experiment in Riel was very pleasant and satisfying!