Den Bosch’s Greatest Hits: From Bossche Bol to St. John’s Cathedral

As a native of ’s-Hertogenbosch I grew up hearing many stories about the historic city centre. It is wonderful to return to this city and explore its history in even greater depth.

After completing my tourism studies M.T.R.O. in Tilburg I found the right work in this field and was asked many questions by holidaymakers. I answered these in my roles as a guide, tour leader, resort host, underwater cameraman, restaurant owner, Jeep safari guide or sailing flotilla leader. All these experiences are now used when compiling my information and stories which I incorporate into my driving routes and city walks.

There was already demand for this in 2006. The first routes were created using CDs (and even cassette tapes!!). Parts of those early routes have now, with the help of the VoiceMap app, grown into a wonderful portfolio of day trips in the three languages I speak: Dutch, English and German.

They are mainly available on my other account, Mr. Routaki, where I focus entirely on the Greek island of Crete.

But of course you cannot use this wonderful app and not create a city walk in your own hometown. That is why on this account I created the Den Bosch city walk.

Many stories from friends and family, together with in depth study of the city’s history brought this walk to life.

The audio tour starts at the city side of the central station of 's-Hertogenbosch, as this city is officially called. You have the bottom of the escalator at your back and a view over the fountain, with the taxi cars in front of it. To your right is the bus station. So, if you come by train, this starting position is very easy to find.

In the neighbourhood of the train staion is a P+R parking lot in case you come by car. Other P+R parking lots in the outer districts of Den Bosch are cheaper. In the tour I have mentioned two positions where you can start if you use these facilities of the municipality of Den Bosch;

From the P+R parking lot 'Jeroen Bosch hospital' the transfer bus brings you in ten minutes to the bus stop in 'Achter het Wild Varken' [Behind the Wild Pig]. The P+R of 'Stadium de Vliert' can also be used and in this case the transfer bus stops around the corner of the city library. Both options are mentioned in the route descriptions.

Attention; please note that if you are using the P+R facilities that take you to the Parade, a lot of the information about St. John's Cathedral has already been given earlier in the tour.