Tilburg is not the kind of town that attracts tourists. In an ice cream shop (see below) the waitress/owner, when she found out we were from California, wanted to know what we were doing in Tilburg.
.Tilburg is not considered a small town (population: 220,000) by Dutch standards, but there’s not a lot of exciting stuff going on – other than the universities and the textile museum which shows the old glory of the wool textile town.
What’s in Tilburg? The Tilburg train station is in the middle of downtown, and the very walkable shopping and dining area spreads out south from there.
Central Tilburg The handsome Cathedral, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, anchors the eastern end of the center.We went into Tilburg a few times, but it was never all that crowded.The train station has nice bicycle parking. Automobile parking at the station is convenient for visiting downtown.There are attractive old houses..and art works..and interesting buildings..and bars and restaurants..even some art installations..and galleries..We had a nice lunch in town a couple of times We even found a very unique ice cream placeinside a fancy home goods store
A very nice, well dressed lady greeted us and said in perfect English, “I sent my daughter to study in New York, and she came home wanting to make ice cream. So I sell the ice cream she makes here. I end up doing all the work!”
Good ice cream, but I am not sure how much they would have to sell to recoup the college tuition in the U.S .The most comfy looking bench we encounteredA Korean lady named Inza opened this restaurant in a medium size city in the Netherlands? There’s got to be a story here!There were some weekly farmers markets in several different spots in the city.The old train station area around the new one has been turned into modern food halls and arts venues. This is the library building in that complex that has won numerous architectural awards.The interior is even more interesting than the exterior. There are many different areas to do different activities within the library.
Tilburg seems like a nice city where people are content to live, work, study, and play whether outsiders visit or not. We probably would have gone there more to hang out if we stayed longer in the area.
Small Wide World 