Brunssum Travel Guide

This restaurant is owned by Canadians. So if you're Canadian or American you'll enjoy yourself here. They serve everything from pizzas and hamburgers to steak and spaghetti.
The restaurant seats up to 100 persons and has a real cosy feel. It's also very suitable for children.

Favorite Dish: The best dish has to be the pizza taco. This pizza has a really thin crust, but it is huge. You'll never be able to finish it. It is topped with spicy taco meat, vegetables and lettuce. Served with sour cream this pizza makes a delicious change to the standard pizzas you find in the supermarket.

In the province of Limburg, people speak a dialect, most Dutch people cannot understand much of it and consider it to be some kind of German.

Limburger people know better, there's even a bit French influence in there, but basically it's just twisted Dutch with a mix of German. Every town (and sometimes every village) have their own dialect, differences can be quite big if you are a local. In fact you can face difficulties understanding people from another part of the province. Especially Kerkrade is notorious for their difficult dialect.

Brunssum (and the region) is a former mining city which attracted workers from all over the Netherlands and even Europe. So the local dialect is not that preserved here. Most young people know how to speak it but preffer Dutch. The older people preffer the dialect.

So don't worry if you don't speak our dialect, Dutch will do fine and people switch to it easily (as they do everywhere in Limburg). Do notice that when you try out Dutch, we might answer with a strange accent.. can't help it!!

Luggage and bags: Bags for shopping -- grocery stores do not automatically give you a bag. Once you get used to the concept, it becomes second nature and makes a lot of sense in terms of cutting down waste.

Clothing/Shoes/Weather Gear: Rainjacket & comfortable shoes:
The downtown areas is for pedestrians only and many of the streets are brickpaved and uneven, not bad to walk on unless you're in high heels!
And much like my beloved Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (where I used to live), it rains a lot, so be prepared.

Toiletries and Medical Supplies: As on any trip, bring things that you're used to, but I found that I was able to find everything that I wanted.

Many people laugh at our hills. The highest is just 322 meters high, Hills in Brunssum go up to 100meter, the lowest point is about 50 meters above sealevel.

See if you can still laugh after a cycling trip.
The tour leads you north of Brunssum through countryside and past some villages including Amstenrade with a nice castle and old villagecenter. Any cycler can do this +/- 20km tour which lasts about 1 hour.

Start at the old town-hall in Brunssum. Follow the road down the park, and turn right at the "Jan Linders" supermarket (here is the main busstop), you go up a small steep hill. On top turn left and continue towards Schinveld. If you cycle towards Schinveld you will see an Esso gas station, continue the road untill you see an Avia Gas station at the next roundabout, go left, you will have a scenic road of about 7km long which leads you past hills, a castle (Etzenrade) and small villages. Scenery is good here. At the end of the road you will go underneath a road. Go left up the ramp and turn left onto the road again. continue on to the traffic lights and turn right (to your left is the castle of Doenrade, hidden behind the trees, you may want to cycle towards it). The road curves, continue straight ahead. You go downhill to the village of Oirsbeek and after 1km you enter Amstenrade. After another km you leave Amstenrade. Turn left towards the Church. On your left is the Castle of Amstenrade, this part of the village is cultural heritage and protected by the state.
pas the church and turn right uphill.. follow the road for 1km and turn left on the big road. You are in Brunssum again. Follow this road for 3 more kilometers straight ahead and you will end-up in the city center at the old town hall.

If you are trained cycler, take the tour the other way around, the hills are trickier the other way around, especially the climb in Oirsbeek will get you sweating!

Favorite thing: Here is a short list of phone numbers you might need:

General emergencys: 112

The police: 09008844

Hospital Brunssum: 045 - 527 99 99

Taxi: 045 - 5252444

This off course isn't a favourite thing at all. Just might be usefull.