2024-04-05 51 4

Fri 5 Apr 2024 in 51,4: 51.5823500, 4.7950783 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

Behind a hospital in Breda, next to a public road.

Participants

Expedition 1:

• MyrtleGlacy

Expedition

I had a day off, so I was really happy to see a hash that was this easy and reachable (even if the roundtrip would take me at least 3 hours). I started by going to Utrecht Centraal and grabbing the 401 bus there. It is a long range base (for the Netherlands), and I hadn't used one of those before. Of course, I did have to stop by the bookshop and figured I'd take a picture of Miffy there. She's a Utrecht local, so they like to promote her here as much as possible.

The bus was on time, and pretty empty when I got in. It was a new one, with good seats and a USB charging port that I failed to use. All in all it took about 75 minutes by bus to reach Breda. We crossed the Maas and the Waal going south. I spotted at least 3 buzzards, what I think was a Short-eared owl and another Bird of Prey that was too far away to identify from the bus. It was cool seeing all these birds, but they did distract me from my book, which was I intended to finish.

Arriving in Breda, we had suffered significant delays because of traffic. This made our driver decide to go directly to the end-point, Breda Centraal, and skip my stop. Very annoying, but reasonable, I guess. So I had to grab another bus from Breda Centraal to get back to the hash. It was only 3 stops away, but by the time I arrived, I had to grab a drink first and I needed to use the bathroom. So I visited the hospital. It looked pretty friendly with some volunteers to show the way if you needed it. I didn't spend more time than needed to finish my Chai Latte, and then left for the hash.

The hash point was only a 5 minute walk tops. It was next to a road behind the hospital, next to the Verbeeten-instituut (cancer treatment) and the "Nuclear Science" department, which sounded interesting but didn't look to friendly to random geohashers to walk in and start asking questions. There were a lot of people at and around the hash actually, with 3 workers with a truck only 3 meters away and a lot of people walking from the parking lot to the hospital. I saw some people look at me, especially when I started taking pictures.

I left the hash after a few minutes and decided to make a daytrip out of it. I visited Breda, shopped around a bit, saw the Grote Kerk (Big Church), visited a beguine community garden and church and finally made my way back home by bus again. I added some pictures of the sights to this expedition, but I won't go into detail here because they arent "technically" related to the hash.

All in all, a very easy hash and a great day to spend exploring and doing touristy things.

Photos

• 

  I don't often see the sky this early in the day

• 

  Local to Utrecht, you can see Miffy everywhere

• 

  Here's where all the trains and buses gather

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  A rather new and fancy bus

• 

  Crossing the Meuse

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  Crossing the Maas

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  I think the small bike is a permanent fixture

• 

  Quick stop for a drink

• 

  I hope they don't see too many Geohashers

• 

  SUCCES! But I forgot to take a selfie

• 

  View from the Hash

• 

  View from the Hash

• 

  View from the Hash

• 

  An icon of Maria, as a thanks to the Polish for liberating Breda

• 

  The icon was in the Polish Chapel to Maria.

• 

  This church used to be used by the Beguines

• 

  This statue is dedicated to the Turfschipper. It is a historic event for Breda, but I found it because of the Geocache nearby

• 

  Aptly named

• 

  Big AND Beautiful. And apparently home to our royal family before they moved northwards.

• 

  Saint Christopher is the Patron Saint of travellers. I found it fitting to include him in this report

Achievements

In my quest to reach the Subdivision Achievement for the Dutch Provinces, this was Noord Brabant.

MyrtleGlacy achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Utrecht, Netherlands and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

MyrtleGlacy achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Eindhoven, Netherlands and 2 of the surrounding graticules.

MyrtleGlacy achieved level 2 of the Minesweeper Geohash achievement by visiting coordinates in Rotterdam, Netherlands and 2 of the surrounding graticules.